With their many twists and turns, the thought of trying to figure out Social Security policies can make your head spin. Myths abound about Social Security. Unfortunately, many people believe them.

Sadly, these myths can cost you big time.

Social Security Myth #1 – The “Maximum” Is the Highest Payment You Can Get

The Social Security “maximum” ($2,687) is the highest payment you can get at “Full Retirement Age.” The actual top payment you can receive is at age 70.

Full Retirement Age (FRA) is when the Social Security Administration deems you eligible for your “full” benefit. If you apply earlier, your payment is reduced, but if you apply later, your payment will increase. The Full Retirement Age used to be 65 for everybody. Now it depends on the year you were born.

Delayed Retirement Credits Boost Your Payment

For each year you wait after your Full Retirement Age, your payment amount is permanently increased by 8%.

Waiting until age 70 can increase your monthly payment up to 32%. The maximum amount for Social Security is listed at $2,687, but that’s at your Full Retirement Age. You can increase your payment 32% and get the true maximum of $3,576 at age 70.

Waiting Until 70 Is Best

While waiting until age 70 will give you the highest payment, it is not the best choice for everyone. To know what’s best for you, you need to know that it’s an option. Many people don’t.

My hairdresser, Susan, was surprised when I told her she wasn’t getting as much as she could. A Social Security agent told her she would get the maximum at 66. In Social Security terms, that is true. She is getting the maximum, but it is not the highest payment she was eligible to receive. Had she waited until 70, Susan could have gotten about $600 more per month.

If she lived until 85, that increase would have amounted to over $100,000 more in lifetime benefits.

Social Security Myth #2 – If You Work, You’ll Lose Your Social Security

Many retirees claim that having a good social life is the key to happiness as you grow older. Having a job is an excellent way to meet people and stay active and engaged.

When I suggest to seniors that they get a job, I often hear them say they can’t work because they’ll lose their Social Security. This is a common myth, and it is holding many seniors back from earning money, as well as meeting more people and enjoying life more.

If you are over your Full Retirement Age, you can earn as much as you want or are able. It does not affect your Social Security payment whatsoever.

There is no penalty for working, and you will receive your full Social Security payment if you are over 66. If you are between 62 and your Full Retirement Age, you can earn up to $16,920 per year without your payment being affected. Many part-time jobs pay less than that.

If you earn more than $16,920, you are subject to a penalty of $1 for every $2 you earn over the limit. Your Social Security payment may be withheld sometime in the future until the penalty is satisfied.

Whether or not you plan to work is a major consideration in deciding when to start collecting Social Security. If you know you are going to earn a good deal over the limit, you may want to wait until a more financially advantageous time.

Social Security Myth #3 – Your Monthly Payment Is Based on Your Earnings at the Time You Retire

Many people believe that your Social Security payment will be based on the amount you are earning when you retire, but that is not the case. Your Social Security monthly payment amount is based on your 35 highest earning years.

To calculate your benefit, Social Security takes your 35 highest earning years, converts them to today’s dollars, enters those figures into a formula and comes up with your monthly payment amount.

What you have earned over your working lifetime determines what your monthly payment will be. You do not have to try and beef up your earnings in the last few years before you retire.

You can get a copy of your earnings record by going to this website. You’ll be able to see everything you’ve earned and all of the payments made on your behalf. You can also use the benefit estimator, which will let you know approximately how much your monthly payments will be at different ages.

My Experience

When I was 58, I got concerned. I didn’t know how Social Security worked, when I could begin collecting, or how much my payments would be.

How would I survive?

It was time for me to learn my Social Security options so I could make the right choices.

I researched online through websites and articles and in books. There was a lot of confusing and conflicting information. I collected mountains of paper. I wore myself out. Until one day I thought wouldn’t it be nice if all of this information were in one place in simple, easy-to-understand language.

I became a writer that day. My current book, The New Retirement Basics, is simple, concise, and easy-to-understand. It gives you all you need to know to navigate the basics of Social Security under one cover.

Social Security can be challenging and intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be. The more you know, the more you will be able to make good, educated decisions. With the right information, you’ll keep busting those myths and get what you are entitled to.

Do you have any Social Security policies you are confused about? Have you had an experience where you didn’t get the right information? Have you figured out your payment amount and the best choice for you? We look forward to hearing your comments and questions.

Tayshia Adams’ Pink Crystal Buckle Sandals at the Rose Ceremony

The Bachelorette Season 16 Episode 10 Fashion

Feet candy! Tayshia Adams’ pink crystal buckle sandals on last night’s episode of The Bachelorette were the perfect sparkly addition to her stunning rose ceremony lewk (thank you cameraman for that amazing zoom-in shot ). And while the real thing is unfortunately sold out, no worries because we’ve of course included some similar options down below — so buckle up.

Fashionably,

Faryn

Click Here to See Her Sold Out Alexandre Vauthier Sandals

Click Here to Shop Them in Pink Satin on Sale

Dress By Randi Rahm, Email sales@randirahm.com to Order

Dress Info: @RandiRahm

Originally posted at: Tayshia Adams’ Pink Crystal Buckle Sandals

One of the loveliest lessons we have learned as we reach our 60s and beyond is that life is full of surprising twists and turns. What may have been a passing fancy becomes a life-long passion and major fork in the road.

I once had a yoga instructor who spoke of having a helicopter view of our lives. If we thought we were in a ‘traffic jam’ of life, our helicopter view would show us an unencumbered road ahead. And so the journey continues.

Our Activities Change

In my 20s, 30s, and 40s, I was active as a dancer, an athlete, and busy meeting the demands of a working mother, wife, and social being. In my 50s, the leaping and twirls of the dance seemed to be a bit harsh on my body.

A friend suggested a yoga class and I was interested in anything that wasn’t as boring as the step machine. She offered me movement, challenge, music, community, and more. I was instantly and deeply devoted to developing a yoga practice which continues to this day.

Then, just as I was beginning my yoga journey, my dearly beloved father passed away. In my grieving, I found a tiny piece of solace in my yoga practice where my wonderful teachers offered Buddhist and Yogic teachings along with breath and movement.

When my mother passed away five years later, I was able to find a source of comfort in my yoga study. As I practiced the asanas, the physical practice, I immersed also in the teachings and the meditation. I could spend time with my parents’ spirits in a new way that was certainly very sad, but also comforting.

I was introduced to the concept that in death the relationship doesn’t end, it just changes. Wow, that was an epiphany for me.

A Period of Profound Tribulation and Losses

Then in 2015, I experienced my most devastating losses. My husband had to undergo a scary and difficult second open heart surgery. He has since had a heart transplant and is doing really great now, whew.

My very best, soulful and magnificent friend of 40 years, Kaiya, passed on after a 17-month journey with glioblastoma. I was crushed by her death. Three years earlier, my fabulous, and wonderful big sister, Susie, was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. Susie succumbed a short four months after Kaiya.

My two best, intimate, confidants, mentors, and personal cheerleaders were gone from my physical life. The two strong, amazing women I had leaned on and learned from were gone. The emptiness was bottomless.

When Yoga Met Grief

My yoga practice held a space for me for grief, presence, solace, stillness, and movement. I immersed in yoga as the tears flowed during my teacher training and continued studies.

I found the study of the chakras, the seven main physical, emotional, and spiritual energy centers, met my mourning in a way that opened a passageway for me.

For example, when I felt ungrounded, unsafe, and untrusting I looked into my Root Chakra, my Mudlahara. I found I could put myself on the earth, breathe into my root, and practice gentle yoga that was focused on my feet, legs, and lower spine.

That space was where I could breathe, say affirmations that I was grounded, visualize the color red, hold my hands in a configuration, a mudra, that connected me to the earth, and I was present.

I learned to go through my grief to get to the other side, not around it. Through practicing yoga, I learned how to be still and present, and I felt a bit more comforted from it.

I went through my initial grief and my continued mourning studying and applying the practices of each of the seven main chakras, the rainbow bridge, as it is called.

Grief Writing Changed Everything

I joined a local hospice support group of grief writing, where I wrote letters to my beloveds. The others in my group were as deeply grieving as I was. They were also deeply bent over, stiffened by their grief, congested, and unmoving. I spontaneously encouraged the group to gently move in their chairs and breathe with consciousness. They felt better!

Much to my surprise, I was then asked to lead a class of yoga to ‘heal’ grieving. I said that there was no healing to our grief. We needed to learn how to live with our losses. I was then inspired to share what I have, and continue to learn, about the truly never-ending grieving process.

The synergy of my passion for the study and practice of yoga and the chakras, the journey of grief from the passing of my loved ones, life’s many transitions, and my desire (Divine intervention?) to help others led to my creating Yoga for Living with Loss as a style of practice.

Grief is such an emotional, intellectual, and spiritual roller coaster that it can easily become congested in our physical bodies.

Through a variety of breathing practices, gentle yoga movements, a deeper understanding of how our bodies react to grief, an examination of our specific chakras, meditation, and our need for connection to others, Yoga for Living with Loss helps us to navigate our losses without getting lost.

My off-handed agreement to join a friend at a yoga class, has provided me with a way to support whoever I can in their journey of grief, mourning, and resilience. And that has been a surprising life twist indeed!

For more information and to access the Yoga for Living with Loss Video Series, please visit www.GrowingYoungerGracefully.com. and contact me for any comments, questions, or discussion.

Have you heard about the power of yoga for the grieving? What yoga techniques have you tried to help you get through mourning? Who introduced you to gentle yoga? What effect does it have on you?

Many, perhaps most of us, are moved to sing. I know this from my numerous years of giving concerts. Often, I hear from audience members that they had “always wanted to sing.” “I don’t have a good voice, but I really want to sing anyway.” “I think it’s too late for me, but can I still take lessons?”

Perhaps it’s the primal drive to express ourselves in a heightened way. When speaking is simply not enough, we fall into, or perhaps more accurately, we feel the need to soar into singing.

When people who have not sung much begin to learn how to open their voices into song, the feeling of emotional (and physical) freedom is like a powerful drug – a rare uplifting of the spirit. I’ve seen it many times in my singing studio. And scientific studies have given us many reasons for this feeling of wellbeing.

Professor Graham Welch, Chair of Music Education at UCL Institute of Education, London, says: “There is currently a lot of interest in wellbeing and social inclusion and an increasing interest in how music in various forms can support a sense of being part of society and increase your self-esteem.”

To get to the point of singing joyously with others, often we need to go through the process of practicing alone and/or in a private lesson. In these days of Covid-19, that lesson would likely be taken on Zoom or Skype. And this is where the more unmeasured and perhaps greatest personal treasures are discovered.

Here are some of the benefits that can be found in private singing lessons.

Focus

In a private lesson, you can let go of the outside world. You can and will leave your worries behind you and focus on the glorious task at hand – opening your voice into singing sounds.

Lest you think this is a very serious task, I want to assure you that in a singing studio, we laugh almost as much as we sing. Learning to sing is joy – from the sublime to the ridiculous!

Posture

Many of us feel held down in life. We can feel voiceless. Often our bodies display this deep disappointment. We don’t stand tall but rather slump forward.

In lessons, sometimes I will say to the person in front to me, “Think of yourself as glamorous movie star. You look wonderful. You are confident and proud of your work. Try to stand like that.”

Much of who we are in life has to do with how we think. Changing how we think about ourselves (even as an exercise) can be very powerful. When posture shifts in this way, it comes from an imagined place of confidence and pleasure. That imagined place becomes reality in the body, and it lightens us up.

Breathing

With outside pressures and tensions relieved to some degree, you can already breathe a little more deeply, more freely. Standing tall, feeling proud, your lungs open up. You take a breath of inspiration and learn how to let it gradually escape into a singing sound.

Exercises

Some singing exercises are downright funny. We hoot and glide. Sigh and bark. It can be a real surprise to someone who has not made these kinds of sounds. We laugh a lot. And that too, is a singing exercise.

Songs

The choice of songs is a tricky part of learning to sing. Those who have watched American Idol will know how crucial it is for a singer to choose the right song for both their emotional abilities and for their current vocal state. You want to learn with a song that you love, as long as it is within your vocal means.

Lyrics and Memory

Learning how to memorize lyrics can be a study in itself. As we get older, it can become more of a challenge to keep all those words in your head! Each person will find their own way to keep lyrics flowing as they sing. And this improves your memory in day-to-day life.

Lyrics and Emotion

Here is where learning to sing can become a deep dive into exploring how we really feel about life. If a song has a strong message or it explores a very emotional story, we singers have the great opportunity to expand our emotional and expressive abilities.

Songs and Performance

Of course, getting in front of an audience is not what every singer craves. But if YOU do desire the chance to stand on stage in public and sing, there is nothing like doing it in order to learn how to do it. Every moment on stage is a learning occasion for most of your singing life.

And so, I encourage you to find a singing teacher and take a few lessons if you feel moved to express yourself through song!

Do you have a desire to sing? Does singing bring you joy? Would you consider taking online lessons? Or are you eager to join a choir, when it becomes possible again after the pandemic?

Tayshia Adams’ Red Floral Bikini and Crochet Fringe Cover Up on The Bachelorette

The Bachelorette Season 16 Episode 10 Fashion

On tonight’s episode of The Bachelorette Tayshia Adams apparently takes Blake to a crystal guru to have their crystals and chakras read. And although we unfortunately can’t claim to provide the same kind of services here (astrology, maybe), as shopping gurus we can however tell you where to get her red floral bikini and crochet fringe cover up asap.

Fashionably,

Faryn

Click Here to Shop Her ViX Bikini on Sale

Click Here to Shop Her Camila Coelho Cover Up on Sale

The Bachelorette Airs MONDAY, DEC. 14 (8:00-10:01 p.m. EDT), on ABC. (ABC/Craig Sjodin)

Originally posted at: Tayshia Adams’ Red Floral Bikini and Crochet Fringe Cover Up