Q. I am 65 and started drawing Social Security; my wife is drawing too. My question is: what are the rules for drawing money out of my IRA? I want to take out around $6,000 to pay credit cards off. How will this affect me? Will I lose my monthly benefits? How about paying taxes on $6,000?
A. Withdrawals from your 401K plan or liquidation of any other retirement assets will not affect your Social Security benefits. The Social Security annual earnings limitation considers only earnings from employment or self-employment. Pensions, interest, dividends, capital gains or other retirement savings are not earnings from new work related activity.
Call the Internal Revenue Service 1-800-829-3676 for tax information.