Latest News
Two Social Security Rules to Beware Of
Anyone who has looked into it will tell you – Social Security is a highly complex program with a labyrinth of regulations which often confuse and sometimes seem contradictory. Everyone who plans to apply for Social Security benefits should make…
Social Security’s Full Retirement Age Stops Increasing This Year
Your full retirement age, or “FRA,” is a factor which strongly influences how much your monthly Social Security benefit will be. Although the benefit amount you get by claiming exactly at your FRA is based on your lifetime record of…
Do you know how Social Security’s annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) is determined?
One of the most important features of Social Security is its provision to annually adjust benefits for inflation—making it one of the few retirement income streams containing a clause designed to compensate for the loss of spending power caused by…
Drawing Benefits Early and the Key Question to Ask
Reaching age 62 makes you eligible to begin drawing Social Security benefits, and one of the most important things to be aware of is how much your monthly benefit will be discounted, from the amount available at your full retirement…
Got Questions About How Your Social Security Benefits are Taxed?
It’s one of the most popular subjects we encounter at the AMAC Foundation Social Security Advisory Service, often by new retirees who are surprised (and not pleasantly!) to learn how their expected benefit payments can be affected by income taxation.…
Turning 62 in 2022? If yes, your FRA is now 67
We’ve reached the last year of progression on Social Security’s full retirement age–a progression that started some time ago for those born in 1943 and took the conventional full retirement age from 65 to 67. So for now, 67 is…
Social Security Claiming Strategies and the Implications of Divorce Situations
Social Security is complicated enough for basic retirement planning, but throw in a divorce situation and the level of complexity goes up another order of magnitude…or so it seems. So, if you’re in a divorce and planning for your eventual…
Your Primary Insurance Amount id a Changing Factor
One of the most basic factors in determining one’s Social Security benefit is the Primary Insurance Amount (PIA), a number resulting from analysis of your cumulative work history. As your earnings are reported to the Social Security Administration, either by…
A Pessimistic View of Social Security’s Long Term Viability
As many of our readers are aware, we’ve commented repeatedly through the years on the need for legislative action to resolve the Social Security program’s impending solvency crisis, often citing various proposals for Congress to consider and even, occasionally, suggesting…
Clearing Up the Confusion on Taxability of Stimulus Payments
As tax season presses on, many seniors have held their breath on whether or not last year’s stimulus payments will affect the calculation of their modified adjusted gross income for federal tax purposes. Fortunately, the answer is that these payments…