What You Should Do Now: A Calm and Measured Approach
Reading about these mistakes might feel overwhelming, but the purpose is to empower you, not to scare you. The good news is that you have access to excellent tools and resources to help you make the best choice for your situation. Here are a few simple, calm steps you can take right now:
1. Create Your “my Social Security” Account: Go to the official Social Security Administration website (SSA.gov) and create a personal account. It’s safe, secure, and gives you instant access to your full earnings history and personalized estimates of your future benefits at different claiming ages.
2. Review Your Earnings Record: Once you’re logged in, carefully check your earnings history. Does it look correct? If you see a year with unusually low or zero earnings that you know you worked, contact the SSA to get it corrected. This is the single easiest way to potentially increase your benefit.
3. Use the Official Calculators: The SSA website has several retirement calculators that let you explore different scenarios. You can see how your benefit changes if you work a few more years or if you and your spouse claim at different times.
4. Talk with Your Spouse: If you are married, sit down together and look at your options as a team. Discuss your goals for retirement and how to best use your combined benefits to achieve them. Remember, this is a joint decision with long-term consequences for both of you.
5. Consider Professional Advice: For a complex decision like this, it can be incredibly helpful to speak with a trusted, fee-only financial advisor who has experience with retirement planning. They can help you see the big picture and make a choice that aligns with all of your financial goals.
