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Your Cheat Sheet for Understanding Social Security Benefits
Social Security is a key component to many boomers’ retirement plans, but many of us don’t fully understand the system and how to make the most of it. Knowing when to start taking benefits can be overwhelming. Case in point: only 24% of those 55 and older felt “very confident” on knowing when they should start claiming their benefits, according to a survey released by Financial Engines earlier this week. Fifty-four percent described themselves as “somewhat confident” when making that decision. What’s more, when respondents took an eight-question quiz about crucial Social Security rules, 5% got a perfect score...Read More
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You need to broaden the range of issues that influence a decision to file for Social Security, or to wait for some bogus “greater benefit” years down the road. Frankly, it is best for every individual to get whatever they can get out of the System immediately! Any promised increase in monthly payments will be higher only in nominal terms – NOT in real purchasing power. Look at http://www.shadowstats.com for an honest calculation of CPI statistics. Our Government’s CPI numbers are manipulated to NOT give us honest cost-of-living increases. Regarding a hypothetical (8%/year) increase in SS benefits by postponing them, it should be obvious that with a REAL CPI increase of 9 to 10%/year, all you are doing by postponing SS is locking in losses of purchasing power and guaranteeing yourself a falling standard of living. If AMAC doesn’t discuss benefits in REAL, constant-dollar terms, using honest CPI statistics (e.g., Shadowstats), then you are as much a part of the problem as AARP and the damn FED itself.
In addition to adding Real CPI Impacts to your discussions about when to start receiving SS, you should also include the likely impacts of an eventual rise in interest rates and a collapsing bond market; a tremendous increase in inflation (if not hyperinflation) when an increase in the velocity of money starts mobilizing the Trillions of fraudulent US Dollars created by the FED; and the impacts of a likely loss of Reserve Currency status for the US Dollar when other nations start (Note: they already have started!) refusing bogus paper money and start demanding payment in gold or anything of Real Value.
I am greatly disappointed that everything I read supposedly to help America’s seniors still sounds like it was written twenty or thirty years ago; totally ignores implications of global currency issues; and fails to assess options in constant-dollar, after-tax terms. C’mon – there is nothing on this planet more fraudulent than nominal paper money!
How about some interviews with Jim Rickards (“Currency Wars” and “The Death of Money”), John Williams (Shadowstats), James Turk (“The Money Bubble”), Michael Pento (“The Coming Bond Market Collapse”), David Stockman (“The Great Deformation”), or Paul Craig Roberts (“How America was Lost”).
Editor responds:
Mr. Braatz brings up some interesting points, some of which are certainly valid. However, AMAC strongly disagrees that everyone should collect Social Security immediately. For example, if someone continues to work after electing to receive their reduced benefit at age 62, they will lose money based on their earnings. Further,
AMAC believes each person’s situation is unique, according to their health, their need for additional income, and other factors related to their financial situation.
The AMAC Foundation is forming an advisory service that, when operational, will aid individuals in evaluating the options available to them and selecting a course of action that best suits their needs.