Social Security pays $20,000 to $40,000 yearly for life with cost-of-living adjustments, but claiming at the wrong time can cost you hundreds of thousands over a 20 to 30-year retirement. Benefit-maximizing strategies exist, but you need to plan before age 62 when full retirement age ranges from 65 to 67.
Chapters
Our Social Security benefits might not be our primary source of retirement income, but it's money we've earned and paid into the system, and Social Security can pay us $20,000 to $40,000 a year for as long as we live. What's more, our Social Security benefits can increase every year with a cost-of-living index. However, the wrong decisions as to when and how we decide to take our Social Security benefits can cost us hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost income over 20 or 30 years of retirement. And it's easy to make the wrong decisions because the options are confusing and the calculations are complex. What's more, there are several strategies that can maximize our benefits, but these strategies require advanced planning and are dependent on making the right decisions before we reach age 62. For example, the standard retirement age for Social Security benefits is currently between 65 and 67.