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Should You Extend Your Career and Thus Delay Retirement?
In deciding whether or not to postpone retirement and thus realize the highest Social Security monthly benefit possible, Maurie Backman suggests asking oneself these four questions: 1.) What do my savings look like? Social Security only replaces about 40% of pre-retirement…
Why Millennials Should Take Social Security at Age 67
Sean Williams of The Motley Fool stresses that Millennials’ fears about Social Security running out of money are untrue and misguided. As long as there is a payroll tax with workers contributing the program will exist. That some congressional changes…
Increase savings as hedge against future Social Security cuts
With all of the coverage the topic has received recently, most already know that Social Security recipients may be facing benefit cuts in 2035 unless Congress soon gets serious about reforming the program. Will the cuts actually happen? While it’s…
New hiring freeze at the Social Security Administration creates some uncertainties
Newly appointed Social Security Administrator Andrew Saul, as one of his first management acts, implemented a partial hiring freeze at the Agency which has left some areas of the SSA, as well as unions representing employees, somewhat unclear about how…
Social Security 101: A primer
Given that the Social Security program is so complex (over 2700 rules and regulations) it’s quite easy to get mired in those complexities when discussing America’s most important financial benefit program for seniors. So many different types of individual and…
How to maximize your Social Security benefit
So who doesn’t want to maximize their Social Security benefit? A silly question, for sure, because almost everyone who will rely on America’s most important senior benefit program will say they want to get the highest benefit possible. But, that…
The complexities of Social Security
Social Security is, necessarily, a very complex program. After all, it needs to handle every conceivable personal situation for many millions of American citizens, so Social Security is definitely not a “one size fits all’ program. And the complexity of the program…
How do survivor benefits work?
In this Cincinnati.com “Simply Money” article by Nathan Bachrach and Amy Wagner, the authors tackle a question from a reader about Social Security survivor’s benefits, also known as “widow’s benefits.” The article explains the basic parameters for when survivor benefits are…
America’s retirement crisis: Is it as gruesome as reported?
Listening to those endowed with so-called “conventional wisdom” one would think that the retirement outlook for future American seniors is bleak, as is often reported in various media outlets. But, in a report which takes an opposite position, The Urban Institute suggests that the continuing…
Survivors & life expectancy important when deciding when to claim Social Security
Deciding when to claim your Social Security benefits can be a frustrating exercise, largely because there are so many options. There’s actually an 8 year window – from age 62 to age 70 – during which you can claim, and…