It’s so early in 2018 that the Social Security website has yet to update many of its statistics, but there is good news for those collecting Social Security benefits. The maximum benefit increased slightly this year from $2,687 to $2,788 for those collecting at full retirement age. This maximum benefit is includes all types of…
Retirement Planning Articles
How to Plan For Retirement if You’re a Millennial
Almost half of all Millennials in the U.S. are living paycheck to paycheck, and if you’re one of them, retirement can seem too far off to think about. Even though you’re scrambling to pay your bills each month, you need to make saving for retirement a priority now because the longer you wait, the farther…
Claiming Your Social Security Early and The Tax Torpedo
If you’re worried about outliving your nest egg, you might assume that you’ll be better off taking your Social Security benefits early so you can allow your investments to continue to grow untouched. Unfortunately, this plan does not take into account the issue of how taxes affect your Social Security benefits. In particular, taking early…
How Social Security COLAs Are Calculated Might Surprise You
When the Social Security Administration first started paying out benefits in the 1940s, there was no provision in place for how to deal with inflation. Unfortunately, this meant that early beneficiaries saw the buying power of their benefits eroded as the years went by. This is why the Social Security Administration enacted the annual cost-of-living-adjustment…
Are Your Retirement Funds Wandering Aimlessly?
The purpose of your retirement fund is to help provide the income you need to live financially independent in retirement, whatever “financially independent” means to you. Without structure and planning for your funds, that goal can become more and more distant. It doesn’t just happen on its own. It takes careful planning and years, if…
9 Things You May Need to Know Before Claiming Social Security Retirement Benefits
Most Americans look forward to the day that they can start claiming Social Security Retirement Income. In fact, many aren’t just looking forward to it; they are depending on it! The Office of Retirement and Disability Policy recently reported that 62% of aged beneficiaries received at least half of their income from Social Security in…
The Pros & Cons of Increasing Your Social Security Benefits by Continuing to Work
Many older Americans talk about their Social Security Retirement Benefits. What they often don’t address, however, is how they earned them. Most people know that your benefit payments are tied to your lifetime earnings and how long you waited to take them, but they don’t know anything more specific about how they work. Benefit payments…
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