medicare

You can receive SSI disability payments only if you are living in the United States. But if you are on Social Security pension retirement you made live in another country and receive payments.

Thank you jbd777....I have thoght that one way of accomplish my willingness to move to Colombia is by switching fromsocial security  disability benefits to a regular pension,based on my age.....I'll be 64 inFebruary 2018 and I think I can buy a private health insurance plan,or else,travel from time to time until my full retirement age at 66...

Since guidofeb12 mentions private health coverage I'll ask the question of those here who use a private health insurance company in Colombia.
What companies are you using and are you satisfied? Are there any companies to avoid in your experience?
I'll be living in Medellin and in need of coverage.

Thanks in advance,
Steve

There are 2 companies that are the best there. Reasonably priced by foreign standards. I had Col Sanitas.  Sp?. 230mil per mo. Quality co.

guidofeb12 wrote:

I have thoght that one way of accomplish my willingness to move to Colombia is by switching from social security  disability benefits to a regular pension, based on my age..... I'll be 64 in February 2018 and I think I can buy a private health insurance plan, or else travel from time to time until my full retirement age at 66.

Dear Guido,

Here are some items to consider, some of which you may already know....

1.  You do not need to wait till "full retirement age" to collect monthly pension income from Social Security.  You are of age to start collecting now.  The income would be more (per month) if you wait, but you'd pass up a lot of income while waiting for several years.

2.  To my knowledge, you cannot simply switch from SS disability to a "regular pension."

3.  If buying a private health plan, do so before age 65, at which age your choices may become fewer and more expensive.  Do it in Colombia if you will be living here.

4.  The plan to "travel from time to time" until you reach your "full retirement age" (66) needs clarification.  I don't get it.  I don't see that traveling solves a relevant problem.

5.  If you haven't visited Colombia yet, there's no time like the present, especially since they say that most of the lights are still out in your area (Puerto Rico).

cccmedia in Departamento de Nariño, Colombia

I agree with CCC the money you miss from waiting to collect would take years to recoup by waiting until ur retirement age...but up to you. Also I know more than one gringo getting their disability payments. It's just an automatic payment to ur bank back in the USA. Not having a Colombian acct I just choose to ATM everything here.

Floridaray wrote:

I agree with CCC the money you miss from waiting to collect would take years to recoup by waiting until ur retirement age...but up to you.

You have to do the math and figure out your break-even point and when you start moving ahead in terms of total $$$ received.  And how long you think you may live after your retirement age.

For instance just using some made-up numbers (but close) if you would get $1600/month now (at whatever age, like say 66) but if you would wait two years until age 68 you'd get $2000/month, at 66 you would get an additional 2 years' income or $38,400 more as opposed to waiting until age 68.  But if you wait until age 68 you'd get $4800 more each year, $24,000 instead of $19,200.  So after about 8 years (38400/4800) you would break even at age 76 and then every year after that receive more, total, by waiting until age 68.  So if you live longer than 8 years after age 68 it would pay to wait until age 68 to get $2000/month ($24K/year) instead of retiring at age 66 with $1600/month ($19.2K/year).

Osage yeah ur right...how long you live is the determining factor. I got my tp7 with my state pension and still have 3 years until I can collect SS at the min 62. I'll prob take it then especially since I've got some bad habits, smoking, etc. But yeah if you're planning on a longer life and can afford it better to wait.

The other thing is you want to wait until your monthly benefit is substantial enough to qualify for the visa technical requirement. Not usually an issue for Colombia though.

SunsetSteve wrote:

The other thing is you want to wait until your monthly benefit is substantial enough to qualify for the visa technical requirement. Not usually an issue for Colombia though.

Actually, the longer you wait, the less likely you may be to qualify as a pensioner for a visa in Colombia.

That's because the visa minimum-amount is a factor of the wages earned by Colombians nationwide .. and is figured in pesos.  The wage-factor has been increasing at a healthy pace in recent years -- boosting the visa-minimum -- although the wage-factor increases have been somewhat offset by fluctuations in the peso-to-dollar exchange rate in some years.

Neither Colombian wages nor the exchange range .. is predictable.  So waiting for SS benefits to outpace the visa-minimum is a questionable strategy.

For 2017, the US dollar equivalent of the pension minimum is about $750 in pension income per month.

cccmedia in Departamento de Nariño

a zero sum game. Maybe. Depending on the indexing calc I guess.

Thank you all for so valuable prespectives.I just knew that I cannot resign soc sec disability and specially when your condition is progressive and degenerative(lumbar disks).Still I have managed to avoid surgery using alteolornative ways like accmbupunture and chiiropractic and still committed to move to Colombia at the right time.