Social Security

The best place to find the amount of your social security benefit at retirement is in your Social Security Statement.  This is mailed to you annually about three months before your birthday if you have paid into Social Security and you are over 25 years of age.

Here is a picture of the first page of my Social Security Statement.

If you have contributed to the Social Security (SS) program and earned 40 credits, you can start drawing benefits at age 62.  However, your benefits will be reduced 20% below full retirement benefits.

Boomers have to work to age 66 or 67 to get full retirement benefits depending on the year of birth.

Here is the table to calculate when you will be able to receive full retirement benefits:

Page 2 of the Statement is where you find the amount of your monthly payment depending on when you choose to retire.

Now that you have this information, you can proceed to the next step to prepare to use the best retirement calculators.

If you cannot find your SS Statement, the Social Security Administration (SSA) has calculators that will estimate your benefits.  Be sure to read the "Things You Should Know" on the calculator page.  You can choose a Quick Calculator, an Online Calculator, or a Detailed Calculator on the SSA Calculator Page.

If you have not received one, you can submit a request online and receive your statement by mail in 2 to 4 weeks. However, if you request a statement this year, SSA will not automatically send you another statement until next year.

SS can be a very important part of your retirement finances.  To see the true impact of having or not having this in your retirement planning, use the Bloomberg Retirement Calculator.  It has a check box on it "To include Social Security".  See the picture below for the location of this option.  Run the calculator with the box checked.  Then run the same inputs without the box checked to see the significant difference.

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