What you don’t know about Social Security could cost you a lot of money

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A key part of your retirement planning should be an understanding of your Social Security benefits. This monthly check is a safety net, and the timing of when you start taking benefits can be a game changer.
“If you have average earnings, your Social Security retirement benefits will replace only about 40 percent,” the Social Security Administration says. “The percentage is lower for people in the upper income brackets and higher for people with low incomes.”
So how much do you know about the benefit that, for many of you, will make up so much of your retirement income?
I don’t ask that to make you feel stupid. The Social Security system is complicated. There are many variables to consider as you decide when to claim your benefits.
via Washington Post.

Related Reading:

When Is the Best Age for Americans to Claim Social Security?

The timing of the claim is key. The earlier a worker files to receive Social Security, the lower the monthly payment for the rest of that worker’s life. The longer a worker waits, the larger the benefit.

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“Millions of Americans who rely on Social Security can expect to receive their biggest payment increase in years this January, according to projections released Thursday by the trustees who oversee the program.
But older Americans shouldn’t get too... — Millions of Americans who rely on Social Security can expect to receive their biggest payment increase in years this January, according to projections released Thursday by the trustees who oversee the program.
But older Americans shouldn’t get too excited…
…“Opponents of Social Security may once again try to use this report as an excuse to cut benefits, including raising the retirement age,” said Max Richtman, who heads the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare. “We must, instead, look to modest and manageable solutions that will keep Social Security solvent well into the future without punishing seniors and disabled Americans.”
via Associated Press.
The 2017 OASDI Trustees Report confirms that the Social Security Trust fund is stable and healthy for now, but faces challenges in the future if corrective action is not taken.
**via Trustees Say Social Security is Sound for Next Two Decades.**

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Social Security is the most important retirement benefit for most American workers - it provides at least half of the income for 48 percent of retired couples, and for 71 percent of single seniors, according to the Social Security Administration. Also, Social Security benefits kept 22.1 million seniors, working-age adults and children out of poverty in 2015 according to an analysis of Census data released this week by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

via REUTERS.

Sign Our Petition:

Petition to Congress: STOP Bullying America’s Working Class: End the Calls to Cut Our Earned Benefits.

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Get your official “Protect our Medicare and Social Security Benefits” sign. Or 2, or 3… or 10. Use the signs for an action in your community to defend our earned benefits!
Visit our website by clicking here to get your signs.

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When is the best age for Americans to claim Social Security?

Retirees can lose 25-30 percent of their full benefit if they file too early.

When to claim Social Security retirement benefits is one of the most crucial financial decisions facing older workers.

But not everyone makes informed choices.

The timing of the claim is key. The earlier a worker files to receive Social Security, the lower the monthly payment for the rest of that worker’s life. The longer a worker waits, the larger the benefit.

Workers can claim as early as 62, but face a permanent reduction of benefits for every year they file before full retirement age of 66 (soon to be 67). Even so, nearly half of American workers claim Social Security benefits at 62, and a cumulative 60 percent claim before full retirement age – electing to accept a significant loss of income for the remainder of their lives.

Rebutting Rubio and Ryan’s Social Security, Medicare myths

Max Richtman

In opposing these attempts to undermine Social Security and Medicare, it’s important for us to continue to correct a few of Rubio and Ryan’s mendacious fairy tales about these programs:

“Social Security and Medicare are the ‘major drivers’ of the debt”

This is a canard budget hawks often use to attack earned benefits. The truth is that Social Security and Medicare Part A are self-funded through workers’ payroll contributions.

“The only way to keep these programs solvent is to privatize and cut benefits”

In truth, there are modest and manageable measures that Congress could implement to ensure the solvency of Social Security and Medicare for most of the rest of this century — while modestly expanding benefits.

“The government should get out of the health care business”

As part of his justification for gutting Medicare, Speaker Ryan claims that the government cannot deliver health care as efficiently as the private sector. This flies in the face of fact. Medicare’s administrative costs are only 2 percent of its operating budget. The average overhead for private insurers is closer to 20 percent.

“These changes will only affect future seniors”

Rubio and Ryan like to say that their plans to gut earned benefits won’t impact current seniors, only people their age or younger. This proposition is disingenuous in two major ways. Future retirees will be no better able to save for retirement or withstand benefit cuts than today’s seniors, as working families’ incomes are forecast to remain stagnant for the foreseeable future. Secondly, today’s seniors aren’t likely to support reductions in earned benefits for younger generations because they actually care about their children’s — and grandchildren’s — financial and health security.

NCPSSM — What you don’t know about Social Security could...

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