WASHINGTON, April 21, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/
-- Latinos in the United
States are living longer than ever. In fact, Hispanic
Americans have higher life expectancies than their Black and White
counterparts. With the good fortune of living longer comes the
indispensable need to prepare for a longer retirement. Social
Security provides critical economic security to retirees who
contribute part of their earnings to the system over their working
lives. However, because about two-thirds of Latinos work for
companies that do not offer a retirement plan, Latinos are more
likely than other seniors to rely on Social Security as their sole
source of retirement income. Eager to collect their hard-earned
benefits, many workers do not realize that waiting to collect
Social Security may be the best way to maximize their money.
"One reason why Social Security is such an important piece of
the puzzle when it comes to planning for retirement is that these
benefits last for life," said Eric
Rodriguez, Vice President of the Office of Research,
Advocacy and Legislation at NCLR (National Council of La Raza).
"Unfortunately, many don't realize that they could be getting a
bigger paycheck if they simply held off on collecting Social
Security. For many Latinos who rely exclusively on Social Security
to stay out of poverty, the bottom line is that waiting is worth
it."
Even though the full retirement age is 67, workers are allowed
to begin collecting Social Security retirement benefits as early as
62. The catch is that those who collect benefits early will have
their monthly benefits reduced. Those who wait to collect will see
their benefits increase up to 8 percent every year after age 62.
Workers have the option to begin collecting at full retirement age
or can wait until age 70 to begin collecting, boosting their
monthly payments higher. For example, a worker who makes
$27,000 per year will earn a monthly
benefit of $750 if he begins
collecting at age 62, $1,000 if he
collects at the full retirement age of 67 or $1,320 if he waits until age 70.
For more information about how to maximize your Social Security
benefits, please read the NCLR brochure "It Pays to Wait" ("Vale
la pena esperar").
Contact:
Joseph Rendeiro
jrendeiro@nclr.org
(202) 776-1566
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SOURCE National Council of La Raza