3 retirement tips you're not thinking about

Save more, invest earlier, watch expenses. Those are some of the traditional retirement suggestions of which most people seem aware. Here are three others that might have flown beneath your radar:

• View Social Security as an investment. Morningstar.com recently polled its readers on whether Social Security retirement benefits should be considered part of an investment portfolio. The majority said no. Most saw Social Security as "an income stream, not an asset," wrote Karen Wallace, a senior editor at the website. There's logic to that, as Social Security benefits can't be bought or sold like stocks or bonds.

However, Vanguard founder John Bogle, among others, has argued that Social Security benefits are similar to bonds and that they could play a similar role in investment portfolios.

Many Americans, including plenty of retirees, are kicking themselves for having avoided stocks during the steadily rising market of the past several years. If more people had viewed Social Security as a conservative part of their portfolio, and invested a bit more aggressively with the rest of their assets, they would be better off.

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• Connect with your spouse. Most couples would seem to want to head into retirement with similar attitudes about how to spend money and structure their financial lives, but apparently that's not the case. A Couples Retirement Study from Fidelity Investments, showed large communication gaps. For example, 43% of respondents couldn't correctly say how much money their partner makes and 47% disagreed on how much money they'll need in retirement.

Robert Warner, managing director at Cleary Gull Advisors, urges couples discuss important goals, priorities and strategies prior to retirement. Key issues include when to claim Social Security benefits, whether to buy long-term care insurance and which beneficiaries to name in wills, trusts and other estate-planning documents, he said.

He also suggests discussing unpleasant contingencies such as how a couple should act in the event of a serious illnesses, the death of either spouse or the potential need for assisted-living care.

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• Match risk assessments with behavior. Most seniors choose to start taking Social Security benefits before full retirement age (66 or 67, depending on your birth year). Hardly anyone waits until 70, when payouts are maximized. Yet many Americans also worry about running out of money — a concern that doesn't mesh with a decision to start Social Security benefits early.

Social Security benefits rise gradually between age 62, when applicants can first take them, and 70, when payments are maximized. There are valid reasons for starting early, such as having a family history of premature death. But for people concerned about outliving their assets, experts largely agree that it's prudent to delay benefits, to receive higher payments. Social Security benefits, guaranteed for life by the government and adjusted for inflation, provide a type of insurance against outliving your money.

Reach Wiles at russ.wiles@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8616.