Ask Terry Questions Retirement

Retirement

By Terry Savage on January 21, 2025 | Wild Card

Terry, I just turned 67. I also just signed up for my social security benefits. I work full time doing Doordash, Grubhub, and Instacart. I plan to keep working as long as I can and save my social security. I am also getting a settlement for my share of a wrongful death lawsuit my siblings initiated over the death of our mother. About 60,000. I am going to pay off all my debts and will have about 10,000 left over. I made a lot of mistakes in my life and have very little in savings. What would you recommend I do with my money as far as investing it to safely earn as much as I can? I don’t think it would be wise for me to take any risks this late in life. I always try to listen to you whenever I can on WGN and I value your opinions.

Terry Says

Well, if you didn’t really need the benefits, you should have waited another year or two to collect! That would have meant an 8% per year increase in benefits — something you can’t get safely in investments! If you haven’t started collecting yet, or just started in recent months, you can contact SS to rescind your benefit — telling them you want to wait. That would be the smartest move.

Let me also ask you what you’re doing about health insurance. Are you on Medicare? Did you sign up for a supplement? The reason I ask is that proceeds of a wrongful death lawsuit are usually not taxable — and thus wouldn’t impact your income. But you should check with your lawyer to make sure how these proceeds are categorized. If they were reportable income, it would increase your Medicare premiums.

Oh, and as to your original question — just leave your savings in a bank money market account. Should get nearly 4% interest, insured.

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