retirement and leveling

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North Carolina Teachers Chatboard

retirement and leveling

by Susan

Jul 13, 2016

I am 51 years old and will be eligible for retirement in December of 2016. Any advice on leveling? Should I or shouldn't I? thanks

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clc On 7/13/16, Susan wrote: > I am 51 years old and will be eligible for retirement in > December of 2016. Any advice on leveling? Should I or > shouldn't I? > thanks

Jul 15, 2016

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clc Can you afford to retire without leveling? Can you or you and your family make it on just your straight pension or your pension with a sure-thing part-time job or your pension plus other retirement savings? Most people who take leveling retire young like you and can't make it any other way. You will have 10 years before you can take Social Security...See More

Jul 15, 2016

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Just Did One correction - Just because you take SS Leveling does NOT mean you MUST take SS at 62. Your retirement amount is lowered to compensate for the leveling years, and it will remain at that amount...but you do not HAVE to file for SS at 62.At 62 you would just start drawing the retirement amount minus the SS leveling you were getting. If you have som...See More

Jul 16, 2016

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A Unless you have some unusual circumstances, leveling probably isn't a good idea. Here's a run-down of why:

You say you'll be 51 and eligible to retire. I'm going to assume you have 30 years and will receive payments of 2500/month -- obviously, this is a guess, and you'll have to do the math for yourself.

If you JUST take the pen...See More

Jul 16, 2016

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Just did A couple of things:

1) Leveling is based on what you would draw at 62 - not 65 2) Everyone is different, but the difference in my retirement was about 200.00 a month. I was willing to live with that because I simply could not keep working under the conditions in this state. I had some other savings and made changes in lifestyle. Don't regr...See MoreA couple of things:

1) Leveling is based on what you would draw at 62 - not 65 2) Everyone is different, but the difference in my retirement was about 200.00 a month. I was willing to live with that because I simply could not keep working under the conditions in this state. I had some other savings and made changes in lifestyle. Don't regret it for one minute.

It works for some - not for others.

On 7/16/16, A wrote: > Unless you have some unusual circumstances, leveling probably > isn't a good idea. Here's a run-down of why: > > You say you'll be 51 and eligible to retire. I'm going to > assume you have 30 years and will receive payments of > 2500/month -- obviously, this is a guess, and you'll have to > do the math for yourself. > > If you JUST take the pension, you'll receive 2500/month for > the rest of your life. Not exactly a cushy retirement. > > On the other hand, if you take leveling, the state retirement > people will look at your SS and will find out -- again, making > a guess -- that you're going to receive 1500/month in SS ... > but not until you're 65 (again, a guess -- so many guesses > here -- again, do the math for yourself). > > So if you take JUST the pension, you'll have 2500/month from > age 51-65 ... and then your SS will kick in, and you'll have > 2500 + 1500, for a total of 4000/month. Not half bad! > > So if you take the leveling option, the state agrees to give > you your 1500/month SS payment out of their coffers ... until > you're 65 and your real SS kicks in. BUT in order to receive > this nice deal, you must agree to take considerably less in > pension FOREVER. To keep our number round, they might say > that instead of 2500/month, you're going to receive only > 1500/month. > > So if you take the leveling option, the state would give you > 1500 pension + 1500 SS each month until you turn 65 ... and > then they'd keep giving you the 1500, and SS would start > giving you 1500 ... so you'd always have 3000/month for the > rest of your life. > > The bottom line: Taking the leveling option gives you more > money RIGHT NOW ... but LESS money for the rest of your life. > > People usually say, "But I can't retire if I don't take the > leveling deal." So may be you can't afford to retire yet. > OR, the best choice: Take your pension now (the full thing, > no leveling) and work somewhere part time or seasonally to > make up the difference UNTIL you're 65 and can begin > collecting SS too.

Jul 17, 2016

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