My name is Jason Bergquist, I am the owner of Jason Bergquist Financial.
My job is to educate people on their finances. I’ve been in the industry since 2000.
So, over the past 21 years or so, I have been working really hard to figure out what is the best way to help out my clients.
And through all of these years, I’ve worked at Merrill Lynch, and I’ve worked underneath the umbrella of many big financial companies, and I’ve done just about everything.
But over the last couple of years, I’ve really honed in on one specific expertise and that expertise that I’ve decided to focus on and help people with is being a “Distribution Expert”.
I am a certified financial fiduciary, which means I do have your best interest at heart. And I have continued education yearly to keep this certification going.
I am doing the training to make sure that I know what’s going on and what’s out there …
… and what is going to be the best thing for you in whatever situation that you’re in.
And today I’ve got a really important subject I want to talk to you about, there’s a lot of confusion out there about it.
There’s a lot of misunderstandings, there’s old information.
And so, we’re going to talk a little bit about Social Security today. That is a huge part of how to make sure that you’re going to have all the income you need for the rest of your life.
And if you, do it right and if it’s structured right …
… it can be very, very profitable, but if you make some mistakes, it can be something that you can’t even fix.
… but we’ve got to discuss Long-Term Care. So, the subject, the question that we’re going to discuss today is, So, the subject, the question that we’re going to discuss today is,
Do You Know Your Social Security Can Be Taxed?”
Well, there’s a lot of medical bankruptcy that happens in this country. And one of the things that we can do is put into our plan a Long-Term Care benefit or an Enhanced LIVING Benefit …
… or something that helps us plan for that unforeseen possibility that “could” happen.
The world’s population is aging faster than it ever has before. People are living longer. Every day until about 2030 … 10,000 baby boomers will turn 65 and 7 out of 10 of those are going to require Long Term Care.
And to follow up with that … are you aware of the changes that have come in that arena?
I have spent a lot of time trying to make sure that I understand Social Security and not only am I helping you understand Social Security …
… but I have a team behind me, a team that is making sure that they know and they’re up to date and they’re aware of what’s going on out there.
They’re helping me actually put together a report for you to figure out how to ‘Maximize your Social Security’.
You’ll see this video and others that talk about Social Security.
And then there’s also another video that goes through about an hour and a half presentation that I do, that’s going to really take you from start to finish, all about “How to Empower you to Create the Retirement of Your Dreams”!
So, this is just one specific piece that I want to talk about to help you understand a little bit more about Social Security.
So, let’s jump into this:
Who are you talking to when it comes to filing for your Social Security Income?
When you’re thinking about Social Security, you’re thinking about when should I start it?
How should I start it?
How should I file for it?
Does it work for me or for my spouse?
Which route should I go?
Who are you asking?
Well, are you calling the Social Security office?
And if you’ve tried that, how has that worked out LOL?
They’re not licensed. They’re not there to give advice. They’re just order takers.
And you’ve probably realized that if you tried calling them.
… Or are you just Googling it?”
Are you just looking it up online saying, “Hey, how do I figure this out?”
Maybe when you Googled it, you found the 36-page PDF. I’ve looked through that. I’ve read through that.
And even for me trying to understand the way things are written, the way things are said, even that can be pretty confusing, but also on top of that, some of that information is old.
Did you know that there was discussion at the beginning of 2020, before the pandemic, that there was going to be a 21% reduction in Social Security benefits?
And that was going to apply to anybody who was filing for Social Security Income.
With the pandemic, that didn’t happen.
But if they were talking about it at the beginning of 2020, what do we think is coming next, right?
We don’t know when it’ll happen, but if there was a 21% reduction in the benefits that you were planning on getting, how big of a difference would that make in your retirement?
Now also, if you’re looking at that information and you’re trying to figure out what’s out there, there was a big change that happened in 2015.
And so, if you are unaware of that and you’re talking to friends and family, maybe they’re quoting you or telling you what they’re doing, but that applied with the old changes, right?
The way that it used to be. So that document was actually called the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015.
And it made some changes to things called File and Suspend or Restricted Application.
Now, that may or may not make any sense to you, or you know what that means, but just know that there were some major changes that happened in 2015.
And so, if you are talking to somebody about what they’re doing or how they filed for Social Security or how they got it, make sure you ask them when they first applied for Social Security.
In those changes in 2015, that was actually something that took place over a five-year period. So, it just kind of dwindled down over five years.
So even if they got their Social Security started in 2017 or 18 or 19, it could still be different for them, vs. what you’re looking at today.
So, do you know what these changes are?
Are you asking the right people?
Are you asking the right questions?
Well, if you’re asking your buddies, you again, might be getting outdated information.
Do you want to figure it out or do you want to talk to somebody who’s already figured it out for you?
Like I said, we can get, get you a free report.
That’s going to talk about maximizing your Social Security, making sure that you’re applying for it correctly, making sure that you understand:
Do I file just for me?
Do I do it for my spouse?
Do I do it for both of us?
When do I do it?
How do I do it?
So on and so on and so on.
There’s like 567 different ways to file for Social Security.
So, if you want to make sure that you get it done right, you need to talk to a professional!
Talk to somebody who understands it, trying to figure it out on your own is like me as an advisor, trying to figure out how to do my own dental work.
It just doesn’t work very well, right?
We want to figure it out, we want to work with a professional. We want to understand how we do it.
Now on a second note, the other question that I asked was, are you aware of the changes and how they affect you?
One of the things that we need to look at is how your decisions affect your income for the rest of your life … on the tax side of things.
And now, it’s even a bigger deal than it used to be because everybody believes, at least the people I’ve talked to anyway, believe that taxes are going to go up.
So, did you know that your Social Security can be taxed?
As I talk to people every day, most people say, well, I’ve heard something like that, but I don’t understand it.
How could my Social Security be taxed?
Didn’t I already pay taxes on that. Isn’t that the reason that I’m getting my Social Security benefits?
Well, yes and no.
Yes. That’s why you’re getting it, but it can still be taxed. And if taxes increase, then that tax you’re paying on net Social Security is also going up.
Now, when you’re looking at it, how do you figure it out?
You may come across a couple of different terms.
So, let me tell you what some of those terms are and see if this gets to be even more confusing as we look at it, LOL.
Provisional Income. Provisional Income is what you need to understand to figure out how much of your Social Security is going to be taxed?
Let me read you the definition.
Provisional Income is defined by the IRS as the sum of wages, taxable and non-taxable interest, dividends, pension, self-employment and other taxable incomes plus half or 50% of your annual Social Security benefit.
Now, did that answer your question?
Did that clear it up or does that add more confusion?
Well, for most people that adds more confusion and so trying to figure out, well, what is this provisional income thing?
How do I calculate it?
What do I do?
You can dig deeper into it. And then it says how to calculate your Provisional Income. Let me try that one for you.
1. Start with your gross income, which is the total amount of money you make, not including your Social Security benefit.
You can find this amount, etc, etc, etc, then add any tax-free interest that you received such as interest from municipal bonds, which is always blah, blah, blah, etc, etc…
Then calculate 50% of your Social Security benefits and add that amount to your previous total, etc, etc.
So, did we clear anything up? Nope.
Do you know how to calculate that? No.
It’s very, very confusing. So, this is just one way, right?
This is just one way to work with it. We talked about using 50%.
Well, there is a way to receive your total Social Security income tax free. Where you could pay 0% taxes on all of those funds that are coming in.
If you have the right structure, if you have the right setup, if you have the right options, if you know how to file for it correctly.
Secondly, you could have 50% that counts as income to you that would have to be reported as taxable income, therefore causing you to be paying taxes on it.
But it could be as high as 85% of your Social Security income can be counted as taxable in that given year and taxed at whatever rate that puts you at.
So, do you know which bucket you will fall into?
Are you going to get your Social Security completely Tax-free?
Is 50% of it going to be taxable, or is 85 percent of it taxable??
I mean, which one do you want?
These are just a couple of things, just a couple of topics, a couple of ideas to really delve into. How do I best make sure that I get the most out of my Social Security income?
And if you’re relying on friends and family, I’m just going to say good luck!
As I read through it, as I study it, I still go ask other experts and I get with my team to make sure that I’m giving the right advice, because there are so many different options.
And as I work with people every day, I have to do different calculations.
I have to get with their CPA. I have to make sure we understand where all of these different pieces are coming from.
I have to get back with my team and say, “Hey, in this scenario with this widow or with this divorcee or with this one that still has kids at home…..” there’s a lot of different things that we have to know.
I just want you to know that I’m here to be a resource for you. Again, my name is Jason Bergquist.
And it’s my job to Empower You, to Create the Retirement of Your Dreams! The # 1 way that we’re going to do that is, making sure that you never run out of money!
And one of the biggest pieces of never running out of money is making sure that you file for your Social Security income correctly at the right time, looking for the right amounts and understanding the tax liabilities that come with that decision.
So, please click on the link below, look at some of the other videos that go along with Social Security and empowering you to get the retirement of your dreams.
There are some documents down there as well. They will get you thinking about it, help you put together some numbers so that we can go over together.
And when we know those numbers, we can really be able to set up a plan, whether that’s now or whether that’s two or five years from now, maybe you’re not retired yet.
Maybe you haven’t left your job yet. Maybe you’ve got a TSP or a 401k or something that you need to figure out if you can move.
We really have to look at the pensions and see how that plays into it. And I’ve got different videos on each one of those subjects.
So, please let me help you figure out the retirement of your dreams.
My name is Jason.
Thanks!
We’ll talk to you soon.
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