Heather Schreiber on Social Security

This is the Truth Network. Welcome to Finishing Well, brought to you by CardinalGuide.com with certified financial planner Hans Scheil, best-selling author and financial planner, helping families finish well for over 40 years. On Finishing Well, we'll examine both biblical and practical knowledge to assist families in finishing well, including discussions on managing Social Security, Medicare, IRAs, long-term care, life insurance, investments, and taxes.

Now, let's get started with Finishing Well.

Well, welcome to Finishing Well with Certified Financial Planner Hans Scheil. And today's show, interestingly, even though we don't have Heather Schreiber with us, it's kind of Heather Schreiber on Social Security because we're going to be talking about the points that she made on a recent video that's going to be there at CardinalGuide.com under Social Security. But amazing gifted lady on the topic of Social Security, and she provides insights into details that I just was not familiar with.

So I know you're going to get a kick out of that if you get a chance to watch it. But today we're going to talk about some of the neat things we glean from that. But as I was thinking about it from a biblical standpoint, how cool is it that Uh God came up with the original Social Security system. You know, when he gave Moses the law, that the way that widows were taken care of by what was called a kinsman redeemer. And this kinsman redeemer would take the property of his family in order to.

Essentially, help out the widow or the wife of their relative. And so, such was the case with Ruth, as you may know, was Naomi's daughter-in-law. But Boaz took on that responsibility, both in helping her when she was gleaning from the field, but eventually marrying her. And in marrying her, they did have a child who was Obed, who was the father of Jesse, who was the father of David. And so, when you think about that, like, oh my goodness, because God took care of that widow.

We had David, and because we had David, we have Jesus, who is our kinsman, Redeemer, right? And that we would forever be gleaning. And so let's glean some more on Social Security, Hans. Yeah.

Well, yeah, I mean, it's just Social Security, when you start to get that deep. Which is going back to the beginning of time and the beginning of really God's been here all along, and somewhere. It was time for us to have a social security system. In the 1930s, when all people were affected by the Depression, and here we are 90 years later. And you read the news and you just it's it's all terrible about Social Security.

And the reality is it's not all terrible is the news. There's problems with the system, but they're going to be fixed. Yeah.

We're in the retirement planning business. And we're we're sitting down with people of all levels of money and wealth and or lack thereof, and we're planning out their later years while they're not working. Yeah, and Social Security is like... you know, on the top of the list, or it's the first thing we start with. And it's important to people.

That have a lot of resources and have a lot of money, and it's especially important to people. who don't, and you know, and have to rely on this and do rely on this for their income. And so the piece that comes together for us is Trying to first of all do an analysis of what's the best way we can set up Social Security. When should we claim? When should the spouses claim?

When I mean, how can we make good decisions? to make Social Security do its best job for us. And then as retirement planners, What we do then is we say, okay, so now we have everything besides Social Security. We're going to put that together with Social Security, and we've got to make a you know, make a living out of it. and make a plan for the whole retirement.

So it's very important. And we brought in Heather Schreiber. I was at a meeting a couple of months ago and she was there speaking and I went up to her and I asked her, I said, you know, would would you be willing to come on one of our YouTube videos and just speak to our audience?

Now our audience is consumers. They're not fellow advisors, most of the time her speaking is to advisors. people like Tom and me. But any case, she was all for it. And so, you know, you can go listen to the video.

By just going to our YouTube channel or to CardinalGuide.com, and you can just hear. straight from Heather. What we're going to do on the radio show today is we're just going to talk about. What she talked about, and make some of the points. And I know that spouse benefits.

is very important to her, very important to our audience, very important to you, Robbie.

So why don't you just go over how you were impacted by this? video, how what you learned about spouse benefits? Yeah, because it you know, my original You know, the question was: when do I start my Social Security? When do I file for Social Security to maximize the situation for me? And I found out through working with you early that if I waited, the further I would wait, the more that Tammy would get after my death.

And I always understood that, and I saw that huge advantage because, again, this spousal veneer thing is widows from God's point of view and my point of view, want to make sure that she's fine after I'm gone. And Social Security is a marvelous thing for that. Just, you know, kind of blew my mind how much she was going to get after I passed based on what was going on there. But what Heather brought out that I had never really realized was that. you know, the spouse while you're still alive, which that's Good too, that we can still be together for now.

But while you're still alive, your spouse gets 50% of. you know, what you're getting from Social Security, I thought. But, you know, again, Tammy isn't old enough, thank goodness, to file yet for her spousal benefit. She isn't at her full retirement age, or we weren't going to wait till then. We are going to wait till then.

And so I assume that she would be getting half of what I'm currently getting, which, you know, because I waited sometime after my full retirement age in order to start it, you know, I get larger than my full. Retirement, or my, you know, my benefit at full retirement. And so, what she explained, which I know this sounds confusing, but no, she doesn't get half of what I'm getting. She gets half of what I would have gotten if I'd filed at my full retirement age. And that was totally new information to me.

And, like she pointed out so many times throughout the video, you know, you're basing decisions about cash flow on future events. It's nice to know what that cash flow is actually going to be, right, Hans? Yeah.

And th that's what we do when people come in For financial planning, we sit down with them and we just look at their situation. And we don't teach them about everything that doesn't apply to them. I mean, we're only looking. And so when we run into a person that's had a good income their whole life like you. And that is probably makes sense for you to delay your Social Security if there's any way possible.

From full retirement, which for you is about 66 and a little bit, to delay it till 70 because you're going to get a much bigger check. And just that in and of itself. is a good place to start. Yeah.

And you were pretty much on board with that when, and especially since you're still working. That you when I first met you. And then we go on and we start looking at your spouse or your wife. and say she's much younger. Yeah.

She will get a benefit. Are you waiting? After you die, if you die first.

Okay, in other words, if you wait. From 66 to 66. to 70 to file for your Social Security, and you get the much bigger check. Then after you pass away, If she's still living and lives on for several years, she's going to get. the full amount of that larger check that you waited for.

So there's a real benefit. For your widow or for your spouse in waiting, and there's a benefit for you. And then What we also point out is She should wait. until she's at full retirement age herself. Because To file for the spousal benefit or the 50% of your check, where you had just missed in the points in all the discussions is.

She's not going to, when she's 66 and 10 months or 67 or whatever age is full retirement for her. When she files for the 50% benefit on you, it's not going to be of your higher benefit, it's going to be of what your full retirement age benefit was. Mm-hmm. Right. She's going to get 50% of that.

And so that was, you know, for me, I gleaned that as it was very personal, obviously. I was like, oh, well, that's good to know.

So, you know, I won't think they're cheating me. What she files for it. And that's what it ends up being, right? And it makes perfect sense to me that they do it that way. But I'm also very.

glad that because the the the big deal is when I'm gone, you know, I want her to be able to be okay. And it's still it's social security. It just continues to blow my mind. And how I thought about it for years, it really is sad. Because it it tr it truly is what it was designed to be in so many different ways.

Well, it gets trashed in the press. For everything it's not.

Okay. I mean it gets trashed. And then people themselves end up trashing it because they just kind of accept all of this. And they, you know, by trashing it, I just mean that people say, ah. You know, it isn't going to be that much money, and they don't this and they don't that.

And look at all the taxes you're paying. And, you know, it would have been better if we'd have put it all in people's accounts and let them invest the money. I mean, people are just. A lot of people are just negative on Social Security. And I think you were.

Kind of that way when I met you. Yeah, I was. I was. Just thinking that it's there, it's something, it's going to be helpful, but I'm just I'm not going to pay it any attention. In fact, when I have to pay it attention, that means I'm really in bad shape, okay?

And what what just through us doing the radio show together for now seven years, you've just developed and you developed it pretty quickly a a real appreciation for the whole system. Yeah, and it just became clear this was delivered By God. That'd be a good time to point out that this show is brought to you by Cardinal Guide, CardinalGuide.com. And if you go to CardinalGuide.com, you're going to see seven worried tabs or menu items, and one of those is Social Security. And when you click on that one, good news, you're going to see this Heather Schreiber video that you can watch on YouTube, as well as these show notes, which are, again, it looks like it was right out of her newsletter, Hans.

And really helpful information and resources for you as you study this idea on Social Security. It's wonderful there at CardinalGuide.com. And of course, at CardinalGuide.com, you've got Hans's book, The Complete Cardinal Guide to Planning for and Living in Retirement. You know, I think the first chapter, if I'm not mistaken, is on Social Security. Everything is kind of built around it.

And a marvelous book. You know, provided me the original understanding on so many things as we enter this stage of life. And then, again, my favorite thing at CardinalGuide.com is just to contact Hans. Tom button, which you know, if you're like me and you get a little confused here, you know, it's pretty simple to have them put these numbers. They have some software that can put your income, all this stuff in it, give you all sorts of custom information once you contact them from the contact Tom page at cardinalguide.com.

So, we're going to be right back with a whole lot more of Heather Schreiber on Social Security. Investment Advisory Services offered through Brookstrone Capital Management LLC, abbreviated BCM. A registered investment advisor. BCM and Cardinal Advisors are independent of each other. Insurance products and services are not offered through BCM, but are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed agents.

Cardinal Advisors is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Social Security Administration or any other government agency. Welcome back to Finishing Well with Certified Financial Planner Hans Scheil. And today's show is an amazing show on Social Security based on some information that we gleaned from Heather Schreiber, a video that Hans and Tom did with her on their YouTube channel. And Hans, you were going to get into these spousal benefits. Yeah, I mean, so let's just understand that everybody Has their own social security benefit.

So like I have a Social Security benefit. My wife, Rhonda, has a Social Security benefit. Robbie has a Social Security benefit. His wife Tammy has a Social Security benefit. uh herself, um everybody that's worked Has their own Social Security benefit.

So, where spouse benefits come in is you have the opportunity as the lower-earning spouse. to get a check based upon your higher earnings spouse.

So, and this comes out of the, you know, when the man went out and had a job. The woman stayed home. I mean, we're going back 50 years or 60 years. And so will she wasn't working, she was gaining a spouse benefit. based upon His work.

And that's it's it's just kind of as simple as that. And so when you get into the modern day, You've got as a spouse who had her own career who worked for his own career. You know, generally speaking, they're going to get more benefit out of just taking their own Social Security whenever it's appropriate. For somebody that like like my mom was that way. My mom worked pretty much her whole adult life.

And she took a little time off to have some of us kids, but most of the time she worked. And so by the time. She retired. Her benefit was more than it would have been, even though my dad had a high income. or her benefit was more than half of his.

Um So Just for you folks out there. that are trying to understand spouse benefits. If you've got a good work history and you're the spouse, Um even though it's less than your higher earning spouse. You're probably going to just file on your own benefits. And one way to do this is just to come in and see us, and we can do an analysis of all this stuff for you.

But let's understand what Social Security has written in for the spouses is that. Yep. If you don't have much benefit, like my wife hasn't worked a lot during the You know, I don't know 40 years we've been married, she's worked for probably three or four years.

So. Half of my benefit is going to be more than Um All of her benefit is a simpler way to put it.

So we're really planning around her collecting the spouse benefit.

Well, I'm still alive.

Okay. So so spouse benefits for a couple that's only one marriage, they've been together a long time, the spouse is either going to file on their own record and their own rec work history and they're going to get two social security checks or the spouse is going to file And get Half of the the primary spouse or the higher earnings spouse They're going to get half of their benefit. Um In a check, if that's more, but any way you shake it while they're both alive, they're going to get two checks.

Okay. Right. In situations where there's a divorce, As long as you were married for ten years, Okay, so in other words, if there's a marriage in the past... And you were married for ten years. or longer And then you got divorced.

And then You didn't remarry before 60. And now you're 60 years old. Or actually, it's 62. Because we would have to talk, I all of a sudden jumped into the widow. I'm talking about a divorce.

where your spouse that you divorced is still alive. Um and you were married to him or her for 10 years. And then you did not remarry. Before 60 And now you can file as a spouse. On your X is account and it costs him or her nothing.

Your ex. It's just Social Security is going to pay you. a benefit based on 50%. of his check. I don't want to get too deep into the numbers of her check.

So that's for a divorce where the ex is still living.

Now, in the case of a of a You don't have the ten-year married rule. For starters, is that if you were married. To a person, there is some period of time, maybe it's like a year or two, but you were married and then. Um he passed away or she passed away. and you did not remarry.

And now you're 60 or older, you can file for the widow benefit. Yeah.

the widow benefit is going to be 100%. Of his or her check, if you file it full retirement. But if you file it at 60 or 62, it's going to be a reduced amount. Um But that's pretty much spouse benefits. And there's a lot of caveats on all these things, so I'm just trying to simplify it a little bit.

And there's no need in learning about all the Situations. If you contact us, we're professionals on this. We'll just look at your situation and we're going to explain only what's relevant to you.

Okay, and we've helped a lot of people with this. A lot of spouses where whatever's happened in the past, they're now at their 60 or over. They need the benefits, and we're going to help them get them, and then we're going to help them with some financial planning to work around those. and to work in a conjunction with them. And also, to me, if you're listening to this and you've got a friend, like I have two friends, unfortunately, that right now.

Been diagnosed with really, really serious cancers, and likely they're going to have widows really quick. And you you want to get them some help and that kind of thing, you know, you might say, Hey, CardinalGuy.com, you can watch the videos or again, reach out to Hans and Tom because it you know that's a big part of their um Practice is the ministry to widows. It just is. And one of the things that I found fascinating is, and Tom and Heather both spoke of it two or three times in the video, was that often people go to Social Security to get advice and they will get three or four different answers. And so what Tom said, which I thought was very helpful, was, hey, why not go get an independent opinion like from Tom or Hans, you know, before you know, you go to Social Security, so you you you get what you need to have, um what you get coming, right?

Yeah, I mean, the reason Tom knows so much about this stuff is. You know, long before I learned about Google, and searching things. I mean, Tom came to work here. He was 20 or 21. And very quick, he's very smart and very sharp, and he's just been at my side.

And so we're meeting with client after client after client. And then Of course, when somebody is a widow, we want to go the extra mile. And Tom is just searching for things and he goes out on these message boards where there's other experts with Social Security, and a lot of what he reads out there is junk, but he's able to decipher: okay, there's something here, and this is coming from a credible person. There, there's just so what you just brought up, Robbie. I think both of these people are.

Under 60, that you just spoke of, these friends of yours. And so there isn't going to be anything for the widow. Um Because He or she's under 60. But there's still going to be a benefit if the children are under 18. there's going to be a Social Security benefit that's going to come to her for raising those kids.

Um and getting them to 18 and then that benefit is going to stop when the youngest one gets to be nineteen or graduates from high school. Um but There's a benefit there. And knowing what all that is, that's why we sell life insurance. It's too late for those folks, but Once people really learn about all this stuff, a lot of them are going to end up buying life insurance. Right.

And therein lies the whole idea of having a financial planner because you don't know what you don't know. You know, life is Short sometimes and people are in situations. And so it's really great to have somebody that you know, okay, this is this is a good place to go with these things. And to have, like you talk about, credible resources. And I don't think it's any accident that God puts you on the Heather.

Because you and Tom are obviously gleaning all that other information that's going to be so helpful. But you know, we've got about a minute and a half to. to touch something we didn't get a chance to talk talk about today that I know you want to get to.

Well, yeah, Social Security income tax. I mean, we talked about that. And if you've got Social Security and that's all you got, you're not going to pay. Any federal income tax or much very small amount. And if you've got Social Security in a little bit, of other income.

And we say, well, how much is a little bit? I mean, like. $10,000 a year, $15,000 or $20,000 of other income besides your Social Security. Again, you're not going to pay very much in taxes on your Social Security. I mean, the only way you're going to pay tax on Social Security is if you have your Social Security income.

And then you have. a large amount of other income. And we have examples on the show, and we talked about that, but it's, and there was a lot of talk that. The Social Security, the tax on Social Security was going to go away. or be stopped.

And I I don't see that in the current tax legislation.

So if you want to watch the video on that or other videos, we also talked about this business of this Social Security Trust Fund and it running dry in about 10 years and that kind of thing. Don't really have time to go over that today, but we got Heather's take on that. And then we spent a good deal of time on the Social Security claiming age. And when would be a good time to do that, and how all that works out. don't really have a lot of we spent most of today talking about spouses, but I think it's a good thing because that's where a lot of our questions come in from people that are coming into our system.

Right, and I'll give you the reader's digest on the Social Security running out of money. I watched the whole video and I was pretty certain that ain't going to happen. I think I'm very certain. Very certain that's not going to happen, but definitely worth watching that and getting to it. Yeah.

So anyway, this is a time where you've got to tell you this show is brought to you by CardinalGuide.com. And if you go to CardinalGuide.com, there you're going to find the seven worries tabs. Today's show was under Social Security, and you're going to see Heather's video and all sorts of information there, as well as Hans' book, The Complete Cardinal Guide to Planning for and Living in Retirement. And of course, the contact Hans and Tom page. It's all there at CardinalGuide.com.

Wonderful stuff. Great show, Hans. Yeah, thank you, and God bless you. The opinions expressed by Hans Scheil and guests on this show are their own and do not reflect the opinions of this radio station. All statements and opinions expressed are based upon information considered reliable, although it should not be relied upon as such.

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Insurance products and services are not offered through BCM, but are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed agents. Cardinal Advisors is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Social Security Administration or any other government agency. We hope you enjoyed Finishing Well, brought to you by CardinalGuide.com. Visit CardinalGuide.com for free downloads of this show or previous shows on topics such as Social Security, Medicare, IRAs, long-term care, life insurance, investments, and taxes, as well as Han's best-selling book, The Complete Cardinal Guide to Planning for and Living in Retirement and the Workbook. Once again, for dozens of free resources, past shows, or to get Han's book, go to CardinalGuide.com.

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