Never Take Social Security While Repositioning Money for a Tax-free Retirement

(don’t forget to checkout the video too)

The question for when to take social security in retirement often gets heated… 🔥 🔥 🔥

I’ve made videos on why you should wait until age 70 to take social security AND why you might want to take social security early.

Both strategies make sense depending on your specific situation.

What it really boils down to is your life expectancy and income goals in retirement.

If you’re healthy, have other assets, and expect to live a long life, then delaying is often the best choice. 😎

But, there’s one thing you NEVER want to do with social security…

If you are repositioning some of your taxable retirement money so that you can achieve a tax-free retirement (i.e. roth conversion), then you should NEVER take your social security at that point (unless however you have a pension that you are already collecting that is preventing you from ever collecting social security tax-free).

How come⁉️

Because of “provisional income”.

Provisional income is what triggers taxation on social security and every time you do a Roth conversion that entire amount counts as provisional income for that year. 🫣

Which can easily trigger up to 85% of your social security being taxed.

So if you’re repositioning money to avoid taxes, don’t create a NEW tax for yourself.

And remember, if you can reposition enough money to collect social security tax-free your retirement income will last 5–7 years longer…😏

That means that you will not have to dip into your other assets as much, and can either spend more money enjoying retirement, or leave more of a legacy to your loved ones. 🩷

Let’s chat 💬😎