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Every year the Social Security Administration updates many key figures within their system.  With the New Year starting, now is a good time to review the updates for 2017.  These figures, and more, can be found at https://www.ssa.gov/news/press/factsheets/colafacts2017.pdf. 1. COLA Social Security benefits will receive a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for 2017 in the amount of […]

This December (2016), representative Johnson from Texas has proposed a bill entitled the “Social Security Reform Act of 2016” that includes a number of changes to Social Security that the actuarial office at the Social Security Administration estimates will extend the solvency of Social Security for at least 75 years.  The media sensationalists are already […]

Acronyms and abbreviations are popular with governmental agencies, but they can sure make things confusing for the rest of us! This week we will identify the most common Social Security acronyms and abbreviations.  Since we talk about most of these in our blog posts and sometimes it is hard to keep them straight, this list […]

Most people know they are eligible for Social Security retirement benefits when they reach age 62, but there is a whole Social Security timeline from age 50 to age 70 to consider as you explore your benefit options. Not everyone will qualify for the benefits we will describe at these key ages, but knowing what […]

In the past we have mentioned how important it is to fully consider all the ramifications of your choice of when to file for Social Security.  For the most part you get one attempt to do it right and the wrong decision may very well cause you to leave money “on the table”.  But what […]

We received a question asking us to clarify how the 40 Elapsed and 35 Computational Years work when Social Security calculates your Retirement Benefit.  Here is the question: “I know that Social Security uses the 35 highest inflation factored years to determine a worker’s Social Security Retirement Payment. But I’m confused about the “past 40 […]

We have blogged many times about different situations where filing for benefits while still working may be advantageous.  Or other times filing then immediately requesting those benefits be suspended can be an effective strategy to maximize your Social Security.  I will not be repeating the description of those potential benefits here, but if interested you […]

The headlines recently have been focusing on the miniscule COLA (Cost of Living Adjustment) that the Social Security Administration has recently announced for 2017. In the coming year, SS recipients will experience the lowest non-zero COLA in history… just 0.3%. Since that news is being distributed far and wide, I wanted to point out many […]

Those of us who have been working for quite some time were accustomed to receiving a Social Security statement every year that reported to us our earnings history as well as Social Security’s benefit estimates for us at various retirement ages.  Those statements stopped coming in 2011 as part of a cost cutting plan for […]

Social Security Claiming Process In September of 2016 the U.S Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report on the Social Security claiming process.  They identified many deficiencies and also recommended some changes to the process to help people make more informed decisions about Social Security.  I am going to highlight the key findings; however you […]