my question is fairly basic, i am single so there is no spousal concerns. i have two rental homes so i assume that is passive income, they are managed by a property management company. i have roughly 600K in savings, 100 in non tax deferred and about 500 in 401K assets. i am currently 63. my question is two fold, how do i calculate the tax advantages of claiming SS early, or delaying taking benefits, and how do i maximize medicare as well as SS when i claim? i really don't see many people addressing this. tax efficiency is my primary concern. i expect once i claim my income will be roughly 85 to 90K a year between all three sources. I am currently retired, with no earned income per se.

Hi,

I'm not sure what you mean by maximizing Medicare. Unless you're disabled, your eligibility for Medicare will begin with the month you reach age 65. As long as you're insured for Social Security benefits, you can then receive part A Medicare coverage premium free. Part A of Medicare only pays for inpatient hospital charges, though, and you must pay a monthly premium for the other optional parts of Medicare. For information on your options, refer to the following Social Security publication: https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10043.pdf.

Regarding your other questions, I would recommend using our Maxifi program (https://maxifiplanner.com/households). The Maxifi program incorporates detailed federal, state and FICA tax calculations as well as Social Security benefits and Medicare Part B premiums in it's analysis, so it should be able to provide answers to all of your questions.

Best, Jerry