On Social Security benefits..if you were 62 and were underemployed

[MineralMan]

3. I did it.

I did the math when I was about to turn 62. I was having trouble finding enough work in my profession of writing, and that had lasted a couple of years. It didn't look like it was going to improve soon. So I signed up. Over the four years before I turned 66, my full retirement age, I collected about $50K in SS payments. At 65, I went on Medicare. During those four years, my additional income was limited to about $13K a year without it causing a cutback in SS payments. I just about hit that limit each year. At 66, that limit went away, and I'm taking advantage of that as I can.

What a person has to do is to do the math. Each case is different. But, special attention should be paid to the amount you can earn during the time before you reach full retirement age. It gets complicated if you earn more than that, and there are time lags while the SSA gets things right or when things change. You don't want to deal with them cutting your payments if you can help it.

I think the amount you can earn, beyond your SS payments is about $14,000 now. That should be an important factor in any decision, I think.