Episode 73: Answers for Retirees with Pension Plans: WEP, GPO, and Social Security
In episode 73 of Accessible Finance, we tackle a comprehensive listener question focused on eventual retirees with pension plans. The discussion dives into crucial topics such as the recent ending of the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP), its implications for social security reduction, and the Government Pension Offset (GPO). We explore how these changes affect pension recipients and their families, including spousal benefits and the optimal strategies for teachers and state workers in light of these changes. Tune in to get expert insights and advice on how to navigate your retirement benefits efficiently.
Read the Transcript
Podcast Episode: Answers for Retirees with Pension Plans: WEP, GPO, and Social Security
Eric: Welcome to episode 73 of Accessible Finance. Let's dive in.
Rachael: Alright, Eric, so we got a listener question extremely excited and it's a multifaceted listener question. Um, to be clear, this is a listener question that I already gave to Eric because there was research needed to make sure that we are addressing all aspects of this question. It's a great question.
Eric: Hmm.
Rachael: All right, so I'm gonna read the email in its entirety and then we're just gonna kind of break up each question individually. Okay? Love it. All right. Hello. I love following your posts and you have great information. Thank you. Thank you very much. Uh, can you do a special episode for retirees with pension plans?
I know that WEP just ended. Does that mean my social security will not be reduced at all anymore if I have a pension? Does that apply if you don't have social security yourself, but will be drawing from your spousal benefit? And finally, can you address what teachers can do as pension holders? Um, should they work summers to earn social security credits now or is that worth it?
Should I just work on earning income without worrying about social security paying jobs and put the extra money into a 4 0 3 B or a Roth instead? I have questions, but I bet a lot of teachers or state workers or anyone with a pension really, um, may be wondering the same things. And we are going to anonymize, uh, her name and refer to her as Lucy today.
Eric: Um, thank you for the question, Lucy. Fantastic question.
Rachael: Very, very good question. Very rich question. Yep. So, to address the very, very first question, Eric, it was, um, I know the WEP just ended. Do you wanna speak to what the WEP stands for?
Eric: Yes. Windfall elimination provision.
Rachael: Alright. We'll get into what that means, but that's what it stands for. Um, so question one, does that mean my social security will not be reduced at all anymore if I have a pension?
Eric: Yes. Mm-hmm. That is exactly what that means. Yes, correct. You have correctly interpreted the rules, and that is as best as we can tell exactly what's gonna happen to you. Beautiful. Right?
Rachael: Alright, we'll answer the second question and then we'll kind of dive into
Eric: Sounds good.
Rachael: What it was like and compare it to what it is like now. Okay.
Eric: Oh, do we wanna talk about the WEP for what, what it was supposed to do?
Rachael: I think we can do that when we talk to spouses. You got it. Um, so the second part, which is kind of goes hand in hand with that first one, um, says, does this apply if you don't have social security yourself?
So for example, I only have a pension, um, but my spouse has social security, so we'd be drawing from his spousal benefit. Um, does that mean that I get to keep my pension? He gets to keep his social security and we as a family unit get both?
Eric: Yes. Mm-hmm. Yes, that is correct. Mm-hmm.
Rachael: That's correct. So let's talk a bit about what the WEP is and why the spousal benefits question, um, is a really good question.
Eric: Yes, yes, yes. That's great point. So the WEP was enacted essentially to try to make. I, I guess more fair or to equalize the individuals that were not participating or not paying into social security. Like, so not paying the social security tax on your wages. Mm-hmm. They were instead paying into another pension plan and then they're gonna be rewarded by receiving that pension plan.
And so the idea was let's not let them double dip into Social Security and their own pension. So they would reduce Social Security benefits or eliminate them entirely based on your, um, payments or lack I relevant to the social security. Um. Taxation, the social security structure, they, why aren't
Rachael: you to avoid having the windfall of both your incredibly massive pension and your incredibly large social security amount, right? Because you would then have far too much money.
Eric: Right? And so the GPO is just an kind of another side of that coin. Um, it stands for government, uh, pinch, governmental pension offset. I think it's just government pension offset. Mm-hmm. But the idea is. It involves spousal benefits. So if I have, if I have a pension, if I'm receiving a pension and then I have a spouse that dies, right?
So like Rachael unfortunately passes away. Mm-hmm. I would not be able to get her full social security benefit. And the way that used to work is it will be reduced by two thirds of the amount that I'm receiving for my pension.
Rachael: So let's break that down with some, yeah, I agree. Some numbers to make it a little easier.
And I like the idea of using. Us, like for that example, right? Sure. So. Okay. What is my take home social security benefit right now?
Eric: $800 a month.
Rachael: Okay. I have 800. Your pension was
Eric: 1500.
Rachael: Okay, so I have 800 a month. You have 1500, correct. And you said two thirds?
Eric: Correct. So
Rachael: it's two thirds of your, so we
Eric: would have to reduce the amount that I would get my deceased spousal benefit. But remember, this is a social security component. We reduce that by two thirds of what I'm getting. Or two thirds of 1500 is 1000, so that's more than 800. So I would get none.
Rachael: Now when you say two thirds of what you get, let's say that you had, you were receiving a pension and then some like reduced amount of social security, would we add everything that you're getting together and it's two thirds of that?
Eric: No, it's the pension. So it's just two thirds of your pension. My understanding is it's just the pension. Yes, correct.
Rachael: Okay, I that makes sense because. This is to try to prevent the pension. Social security, double dipping. So your pension's 1500, if we take two thirds of that, it's a thousand.
Eric: Correct.
Rachael: That's more than my 800.
Eric: Correct. So I'm not getting any of it.
Rachael: You're getting none of it. Negative 200.
Eric: Correct.
Rachael: But they obviously, they're not gonna, they're not gonna take money, gonna pay back.
Eric: Right.
Rachael: But you're getting $0 of my Right. Order earned social security money.
Eric: So now if we want to change the example up a little bit, right?
Rachael: Yeah.
Eric: So Rachel would still be getting the 800. Yep. Okay.
Rachael: But your pension's low.
Eric: My pension now, let's say, is $600 a month.
Rachael: Okay.
Eric: All right. So if we wanna reduce what I would get by two thirds of 600, now we reduce it by 400, I'm still gonna get the 400. Right.
Rachael: Well, it's a little tricky when we're doing the 400. So let's just to be clear,
Eric: oh, I failed at the example from back.
Rachael: You didn’t fail at the example, but I have 800 in my pension, right? I mean, my social security, um, his pension is 600, right? So if we're taking two thirds of that, we're taking $400 is the two thirds worth of his pension? Mm-hmm. So we are reducing my social security by 400. So my 800 we're now subtracting the 400. And so the remaining amount, which happens to also be 400, is what he's taking back.
Eric: So that's, that's why you're a teacher. You would've chosen a better example than this.
Rachael: I just, I wanted to clarify that the two thirds of his pension is not the amount he's taking home, it's the amount that you're reducing my benefits. Correct?
Eric: Correct, correct. So in this, in that example, right, where I was having the $600 pension and she had $800 in social security, I would now have $600 pension and $400 of her $800 mm-hmm. Would come my way. Right, right. When she, when she's deceased.
Rachael: So, so just to highlight it with one more example, if my social security instead of 800 is now a thousand, right? We're still reducing, you still have $600 pension. So two thirds is 400. Mm-hmm. So we're gonna take my a thousand dollars pension. Reduce it by four. Oh, I mean, not pension. Yep. You missed that. My thousand dollars Social security. Thank you. I caught it before I finished.
Eric: You did well, um,
Rachael: taking my a thousand dollars Social Security, reducing it by 400. So then he now has 600 take homes. So that again, was the old rule and the way that it used to work. But with the, um, elimination of the, oh my gosh, what is the acronym?
Eric: G what? GPO. Yeah. Government pension offset.
Rachael: Yeah. Yes.
Eric: Okay.
Rachael: So now in this scenario, right, if my social security is thousand and he has no social security, he can now take my thousand dollars social security or 800 if we did our earlier example, and then keep his full pension as well. There's no two thirds magic happening, right?
Eric: So just brief summary. The WEP or windfall elimination provision, again, no longer in effect, they was to reduce what the pension owners would get or pension recipients would get. Mm-hmm. And the GPO was to prevent. The pension recipients from getting something after their spousal, their getting portions of their spousal benefits. Yeah. Does that make sense? So one of the GPO spousal benefits, the WP was your own benefits. Mm-hmm. Okay. So that's probably the way to distill it and to remember it succinctly. Again, neither of those apply. So how does that change things? Is essentially what you're asking now. Correct. So let's talk, let's, let's get into the question.
Rachael: So the third question, which is a really, really good question. It's his favorite question and he did a lot of research on it.
Eric: I'm excited.
Rachael: Um. And it's a great question, especially for the population that Lucy's representing, which are teachers. Mm-hmm. Um, the question says, uh, what should teachers do as, um, pension holders? Should they begin working summers to earn social security credits now or is it worth it?
Eric: Right.
Rachael: We know that a lot of teachers, uh, work during the summer to supplement the embarrassingly low.
Eric: I was wondering where you were gonna go with that
Rachael: rate of, um. Income that they are currently afforded. As a previous teacher, it's criminal, but. Yeah, that is a whole other soapbox for me. Um, but we know that teachers do supplement their income during summers, and so it's a really, really good question of like, what should they be doing? Should teachers, now that they can get both benefits, be looking for social security jobs? Or should it just be like, whatever.
Right. Um, so Eric, what did you find in your research?
Eric: Well, I mean, there wasn't a ton of research to do, but I wanted to know what the break points were. Well, that's so. Here's the important thing to know here, right? When we're calibrating what the optimal play is, social security op, social security benefits are calculated based on what's a, what's called a primary insurance amounts or PIA. Alright? And the way that works is it has break points and what they will do when they're calculating this is breakpoint means you don't get. Social Security isn't gonna give you, you know, a hundred percent of all of your earnings. So if I make, you know, $20,000 a month, social security is not gonna pay me $20,000 a month, right?
The way that works is I get 90% of the first up to, um, a certain amount of dollars, right? And we're gonna talk about that. Um, it's 90% of the amount up to $1,226 a month, or $14,712 a year in 2025. So up to the 14.7 KI make in a year, social security's gonna gimme 90% of that. Mm. All right. And then the other break points after that, after I've made the 1226 and I've cleared that hurdle, I filled my 90% bucket.
What happens afterwards? Then I get 32% on dollar on the amounts between 1,226 and seventy three hundred and ninety one. Mm-hmm. Right. So like 1200 to 7,400. Mm-hmm. Let's say I'm only getting 32% of that, and then I get 15% of the earnings over the 73.91 up to the cap.
Rachael: Okay, so this is a lot to process.
Eric: Yes,
Rachael: it's um, it, but the point is, feels similar to like tax brackets, but
Eric: it does, but it, the thing that's really important in my mind, right, like, so when we're looking at analysis is you get 90%. And then you get 32%, that's less than half of what you're getting on the first portion.
Rachael: It's a, it's a third.
Eric: Yeah. That's roughly a third. That's exactly right. It's a,
Rachael: um, math teacher, so, right.
Eric: Well, you know, it's not exactly a third, it's not 30, but you know,
Rachael: I'm just saying it's way closer to 30.
Eric: It's gotta be exact less than half it according to be precise.
Rachael: Um, but no. Okay. So I think of the fact that they are. Um, scaling it or putting it into these like different little thresholds as something similar to tax brackets, right? Sure. But if you're looking at tax brackets, it's a pretty like steady incline, right?
This is a super huge, huge drop off, steep decline,
Eric: enormous drop off
Rachael: to the point where I would imagine, and correct me if I'm wrong, is your advocacy then to really fill up that 90% bucket and then. Not stress about going beyond that and look for higher earning potential.
Eric: It will change the math. It will change the math a bit. Right. So, okay. A couple more things than that.
Rachael: We haven't talked social, so now have social security credits. I
Eric: correct.
Rachael: I know we need to do that. So let's touch on that. We talked about the primary insurance amount and how the benefits calculated.
Eric: Okay. But how much in terms of earnings or the way Social Security refers to it as credits? Do I need before I can get any benefit at all before they'll pay me benefits? Yes. The answer is you need 40 credits. Okay. Now you can get four credits a year. You cannot get more than four credits a year, but you can get up to four credits a year. And the,
Rachael: so I'm a pure pension holder and have not been paying anything into social, social security. It will take me at a minimum 10 years. 10 years,
Eric: correct.
Rachael: So if I am older and I'm looking to retire soon and I do not believe that I have 10 years of jobs
Eric: Yep.
Rachael: To put in for Social security, then I'm better off just going for whatever's paying me the highest amount.
Eric: Yes. Correct
Rachael: in, I mean, not as my primary job, but as like my supplemental like, oh, summer. Sure, sure, sure. Stuff. Right? Because that's what we're really talking about.
Eric: I've already got benefits. Yeah. You're looking at total compensation packages here. Right.
Rachael: I'm my teacher. I love my job. I have paid into my pension, my pension's good.
Eric: Mm-hmm.
Rachael: But during the summer, I now have two to three months of freedom to, not freedom, um, but two to three months to supplement my income somehow. Sure. If I am not going to have 10 years Correct. Where I can get. 40 credits,
Eric: right? Yeah, I agree. Okay. A hundred percent. That's a good point.
Rachael: Alright, so let's talk about those credits.
Eric: So the credits, right, you get one credit for every $1,800, let's call it in, uh, covered earnings each year. That's in 2020 $5 and they, they inflation adjusted up. Um, and then if you get $7,240. Then you get four credits. Okay. So the idea here is if you're trying to work for these 10 years, you need to know that you need to clear the bar to get all four credits for a year.
Right? And that bar is $7,240.
Rachael: Mm-hmm.
Eric: Alright, so in 2025. Does that make sense?
Rachael: So for teachers who are out there, then Eric and are working during the summer, if. Let's say realistically we're talking the months of June and July. Mm-hmm. So in those two months, if these te, if the jobs that teachers are looking for to be able to get Social Security credits would not earn them at least $7,240.
Eric: Right
Rachael: then they're not getting the full four credits
Eric: Correct.
Rachael: Which means that it would either take them
Eric: longer than 10 years,
Rachael: correct?
Eric: Yep. Or they need another job that's paying into social security. Correct. Just again, to reiterate, you need to be paying Social Security taxes on these wages
Rachael: on every dollar of those wages. Yes. Um, great point. So if I am. Working something where, I don't know, I'm not getting a W2, right? If I'm doing something like that where my earnings are paying into Social Security, but I don't know for a fact that I am gonna hit $7,240 every summer. Um. If you're young, you might be more inclined to do that. Right? Because you have more than 10 years to do this. But if you're older and you're looking at, I'm not going to be doing this for 10 more years. Mm-hmm. You're probably far less inclined to worry. Agreed about your Social security credits.
Eric: Agreed. So knowing how all of this works, right? Should you work summers to earn social security credits now or is it worth it? I think the. Most succinct answer that we can give is if you think you're gonna work 10 years and you can hit these break points. Mm-hmm. So you can hit the 72 40. Right. And you believe that legislation will, tax law will stay as it is today. And social security payouts will stay as they are today. Really good point.
And Windfall elimination provision and GPO are all gonna be. Still not in effect, right? They're gone. Um, it, it will be, I will, I do agree that it'll be kind of hard to unring that bell. It's typically harder to take good things away from taxpayers and voters than it is to just give them things. Right. So once you've given them something, it's gonna be harder to roll that back.
But it could happen and it does happen sometimes. So anyway, point is, if you believe that we're gonna operate in the status quo, which is like how things are right now. With these laws, I think it makes a lot of sense to try to work for 10 years and to get the social security.
Rachael: Yes.
Eric: Right. Because you're getting 90% of what you're paying in. And if you can, I mean, if you could pay up to, you'll get 90% of up to $14,712. Mm-hmm. Right? So you can get yourself, uh, you will be getting a very high return on your money. You're getting almost a hundred percent of that. Mm-hmm. For life. When you start to claim Social Security with COLA adjustments,
Rachael: it's a Cola's Cost of Living Adjustments.
Eric: Yeah, sorry. Cost of living adjustments. You're gonna have cola, um,
Rachael: and 90% of, by the way, that 14,700 is $13,241. Right. So you're So we're not talking small amounts of money.
Eric: No, you're right. You, you earn 14.7 for yourself in like the current day, and then you're gonna get 13. For life if you claim it 67 and if you postpone, you get more.
And if you claim earlier, you get less. But the point is that's gonna be inflation adjusted as long as social security. Again, like we said, we're, we're assuming we're making assumptions here. And those very, very key assumptions are that the rules are gonna stay the same. Yeah.
Rachael: Now, quick question, um, caveat, right? Mm-hmm. Let's say that, um, somebody who currently has a pension is currently working with a pension, but at some point prior to, um, teaching or, or. Being in whatever job is giving them the pension. They did work some job somewhere where they did end up paying into social security somewhere.
Eric: Mm-hmm.
Rachael: Um, so there probably are some credits tied to their social security number.Okay. Okay. How can they go about finding. How many credits they already have, because they may be like, look, I'm kind of on the bubble. I'm not young. Where I know for a fact I could do 10 years, but I might not have to do 10 years.
Eric: No, that's a fantastic question. Thank you. Um, log into ssa.gov. Right? So log in, get your social security statement. Mm-hmm. Find out.
Rachael: Yeah.
Eric: Um, yeah, so you, you're gonna just, you're need to make a log game. You're gonna need to do it.
Rachael: Correct. Um, and if you're not sure, check. Um, because as you know, we were discussing. Um, you can earn up to four a year, but if you worked summer jobs as a kid, you know, you probably have some tie there.
You may have had a job that you were working before going to where you have, if you have, you know, eight 12 credits that knocks off two to three years of your tenure timeline that we're looking at here. Mm-hmm. Um, so it might make this a bit more appealing if you were kind of on the fence.
Eric: Yeah.
Rachael: Um, alright, so then the final question was, you know. Alternatively, like, if this ends up not necessarily being my cup of tea, I'm gonna be working for, you know, th I'm looking to retire in the next three years. Yeah.
Eric: I think it's just drilling down on what's optimal. Right. So. Correct.
Rachael: So then, uh, the alternative or the next question was, should I work on earning income without worrying about social security? So again, what job you're working on is gonna depend on what we just discussed.
Eric: Mm-hmm.
Rachael: Um, so. She was saying, you know, should I be focused on putting my extra money into a 403B or Roth instead?
Eric: Again, great question. Um, I love it. I would say that the answer to that question is no. If you think you can work 10 years and you can contribute even just to the baseline of that 7,000, you're getting 90% of that 7,000. We said, I, I say 7,000. I just wanna be very clear 'cause these amounts do matter. Um, $7,240. Right, so that's what we're talking about in 2020 $5. And then it'll go up over time, but it's not gonna go up, you know, dramatically. It's gonna be inflation adjusted at about 4% or so.
Rachael: And again, that $7,240 is the bare minimum of, that's to get the four credits correct.
Eric: That's to get the four credits that ideally, like if you're just midmaxing the game. Right. I shouldn't say things like that 'cause most people don't know what that means. But if you're trying to maximize your utility, like if you're looking for Absolutely. What you should do to be completely optimal, the biggest bang for your buck, right?
The biggest bank, that's a great way to put it, yeah. Is $14,712. So that's the, that's the goal, right? That's the, and so the dream,
Rachael: so to be clear, what we're talking here is that in order to get four credits. You need $7,240. If I earn $10,000, I still get four credits. So I don't get any added social security benefits, uh, for credits because I still am on that, you know, 10 year timeline if I don't have any. Right. Right. So I'm not getting extra credits. However, I'm still in that, um, window or threshold of earning 90% in Social security. Yeah. Of what I'm earning. Exactly. So. I If you are earning anywhere between that 7,240 up to, what was it? 14,71214,712. Okay. That is the sweet spot for I get all four credits.
Eric: And I'm getting 90% on the dollars. They're, they're paying me 90 cents of every dollar in benefits when I retire. Correct. Forever.
Rachael: Correct.
Eric: And COLA adjusted. Right. Big deal. I mean, that's a big deal. A big deal deal. You're not gonna get that in your 403 B, you're not gonna get that in any retire in your Roth accounts.
I look, no. There are very few people that walk Mike Roth accounts more than I do. Okay. That's if you listen to the show and thank you for listening. Um, you'll understand that Lucy knows, but. Right, but you're, you're gonna, you're, this is. This is like employer matching on steroids, right? Like this is employer matching.
Granted it's 90 cents of every dollar, right? Sure. I, I agree. However, it's cola adjusted and it's paid out in a pension form forever. You know what I mean? Like, it's very a big good,
Rachael: it's a big deal and it's a huge benefit. So
Eric: you're getting a free federal government mm-hmm. Annuity with cola adjustments. Like you can't, you can't go buy an annuity that, um,
Rachael: so then Eric, to that end, let's say that I am. A teacher, I'm looking for my summer job. Right. I have two options. I have, you know, a job that's gonna pay me $8,000. So I'll get 4,000 in June, 4,000 in July. Okay. It does pay into Social Security, so I will get all four credits.
I will get 90% of that $8,000. Mm-hmm. Um, when I retire, right?
Eric: Yep.
Rachael: Option two,
Eric: just, sorry, I wanted to nitpick, can I nitpick? Nitpick. Okay. So you said you would get the. When you retire, but it's not necessarily when you retire. When I, earliest student claim is 62. Thank you. But the claim is 70. Just I have to be me.
Rachael: Okay. Be you.
Eric: Okay.
Rachael: So option one, $8,000 pays into Social security. Okay? Okay. Option two is $10,000 does not pay into social security. Okay. Okay. So I think a lot of teachers out there who. Are usually, um, in a position, um, at least initially where they may not even necessarily be contributing the maximum amount to their retirement plan. Sure. Because money is tight, because salary is not sufficient. Right.
Eric: I agree.
Rachael: They may be very tempted by this $10,000. Right. I get two extra thousand dollars. I mean, you're not making an extra
Eric: Yep.
Rachael: Fourth. Right. 25% of what I would be making the other job.
Eric: Yep.
Rachael: Um. At what, what would, what does that break point look like for me? Right? Is it worth Social security? Is it worth me taking a lower job that pays on Social security? Yes. If I think I can get my 40 credits,
Eric: yes. It's not close. Um, so the way, the way I would think about this, right, is the present value of your future Social security benefits. And since they're co cost of living adjusted kind of a back of the envelope math you could think about is think about your $8,000 and then, or yeah, you, because that what we, that's what we said. $8,000 eight, the social security, and then think about 90% of that.
Rachael: Yep.
Eric: Okay. Right. So 7,200. Yep. So take my 8,000 plus my 7,200. Right, and think about that. And then really you need to think about it though, in terms of the 7,200 you're gonna be getting. Every year from when you retire to when you die. So you need to think about what you think that is.
Is that 20 years? Is that 27 years? Take that 7,200 and multiply it. But minimally I would be thinking about it. Almost doubling. I would too. I would minimally double.
Rachael: Yes.
Eric: You know what I mean? Like I would minimally take the eight K times two, so 16 or or bust.
Rachael: That was my suspicion. Um, and
Eric: I, I think it's higher to be clear.
Rachael: I do too. I do too. And I think that it's very, very easy to be swayed by the higher price tag now. Mm-hmm. It's incredibly hard to. Set yourself up and delay that gratification later, especially when money is so tight as we know it is for teachers and state employees across the state. Right,
Eric: right.
Rachael: So I do think that it is incredibly important that if you don't absolutely have to have that $10,000 for an emergency fund or something that you need right now.Right now, right now. Um. I, I think a great rule of thumb, like you said, is
Eric: I may even try to do it with an emergency fund. I, I try to substantiate an emergency fund with a Roth account or retirement account. And
Rachael: I honestly think doubling it is great because you're me, you're measuring your, um, your kind of base benefit there. But it's important to know that base benefit is every year you are collecting, it's a huge, your social security
Eric: and its cost of living adjusted,
Rachael: so it will continue to go up. So you could potentially think of it like. 10 times what it is rather than double. Right. Even if you
Eric: think about it, the eight, the additional couple thousands gonna be paid at your marginal bracket, so it's gonna have tax drag, and even if you put it in a tax advantage account, it's still gonna be after tax wages.
It's, there are multiple reasons. To go with the social security. Yeah. Again, the huge, huge underlying assumption we're making here is that this status quo will be perpetuated. What I mean by that is the rules that we're operating under today, we will be operating under when you're going to take this and they don't reenact.
The WEP will reenact GP,
Rachael: that's caveat number one, which again, we have touched on. It's huge. It's gonna be very, very difficult for them to.
Eric: Unring the bell
Rachael: correct to go back. The second assumption here is that you are going to earn your 40 credits,
Eric: correct? Um, you got it. You gotta get that done.
Rachael: If you are sacrificing for a lower paying job and then you end up. Trying to collect social security with 36 credits, that's gonna be really painful, right? So make sure you have a game plan to ensure you are hitting those 40 credits. Um, the benefit is massive,
Eric: hugely impactful.
Rachael: It is massive. Um, but again, like if you are looking to retire next year and you currently have zero credit.
Then this may not be the ideal situation for you to do it. Mm-hmm. Um, so again, do check your social security. Do, um, see if you have any credits tied to your Social Security number already. Right. Um, just so that you can kind of map out how long it's going to take.
Eric: Look, thank you so much for the question. Great. Excellent question. Super smart question. Great question. Love it.
Rachael: Yes. Get hit us with more
Eric: Well played.
Rachael: Yeah. Thank you so much. Um, so again, if you have any questions yourself that you'd like us to answer, just shoot us an email to, uh, at podcast@equilibriumfp.com.
Eric: Thanks guys.
Rachael: Till next time.
