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Besides your 9-digits, you must know THIS number
Social Security benefits are calculated based on earnings from your top 35 working years. But the age at which you initially file causes that number to fluctuate substantially. If you wait until full retirement age to collect benefits (66 or 67 depending on…
Last group eligible in 2019 for spousal claiming strategy
Mart Beth Franklin explains in detail and seeks to clear up confusion on who is and who is not eligible for a particular spousal claiming strategy. In short, those born after the Jan. 1, 1954, cutoff date will never have…
File for and then delay benefits explained here
Tom Margeneau is an expert of Social Security rules and regulations who writes articles nationally. He devotes this week’s column to people turning 66 before Jan. 2, 2020. They can use a legal loophole allowing them to file for spousal benefits…
Don’t tax or expand Social Security for the rich
Andrew Biggs of The American Enterprise Institute argues Social Security needs targeted reforms, not an across-the-board benefit increase for many retirees who already are doing well, as is being proposed in the House Democrats proposal known as The Social Security…
Social Security Disability and Work
The inability to engage in substantial gainful activity is the general criteria to apply for Social Security Disability benefits. This article by Rachel Hartman takes readers through the specific and detailed guidelines for eligibility as well as how to apply. …
Tortoise & Hare: Who gets more Social Security?
Michael Taylor has some fun here explaining exactly how Social Security benefits are calculated using one’s annual income and number of years in the workforce. In this light-hearted example, who would get more in retirement, a hare would earned the maximum salary (currently $132,900)…
Want a big Social Security payout? Wait until 70.
Just 3% of Social Security beneficiaries wait until age 70, the maximum age, to start benefits. That’s a shame according to Maurie Backman, because delaying until age 70 yields one the highest payout possible, for the rest of one’s life. In fact, monthly…
Not the time to expand Social Security given its finances
In this article by Watchdog, Bethany Blankley criticizes The Social Security 2100 Act as proposed by Rep. John Larson (D-CT) as the wrong time to expand Social Security benefits to the wealthiest demographic group at the expense of raising taxes on…
A Primer on Social Security Survivor Benefits
Social Security is most well known for the retirement benefits that one collects as long as one contributed by working ten years in a lifetime. But survivor benefits are a less well known and even less well understood part of the program. When…
Taking Benefits at 62? Three reasons this may make sense.
Age 62 is the earliest one can apply for Social Security retirement benefits, and data shows that most people do start them at or around that age. The literature is ripe with reasons to delay benefits, chief among them to…