Do not forget that you can pause your Social Security benefits!

This one is not really a loophole but rather a misconception that most retirees and seniors forget about when it comes to Social Security benefits. Generally speaking, people believe that if they start taking out the benefits, they end up not being able to pause them at all. That’s where the trick lies: you can stop receiving your benefits and then start receiving them again at a later date; however, you only have one withdrawal claim to your name over the course of your life. So if you want to use this option, you have to be smart about it.

You may be asking why you would be interested in this type of pause, but it all comes down to how your life goes and even how strategic you want to be when it comes to receiving Social Security benefits. There are two caveats to this strategy as well: firstly, you can only start and stop receiving the benefits if you have reached full retirement age or if you have been receiving the benefits from Social Security for less than 12 months.

If you have not yet turned 70, then you can start receiving the benefits if you need them or are in a darker time in your life and stop them after a few months after you regain your footing. This will also mean that you will receive larger sums when you reclaim the benefits. Others use this method to make sure that the survivors’ benefits their spouse gets are bigger.

The second caveat is that if you received benefits before you reached full retirement age and stopped them, you will have to pay back the benefits you have received in order to be able to stop receiving the payments.

If you want to make sure that you do not have to rely only on your Social Security benefits, make sure that you have prepared these alternative income options before you are nearing full retirement age!