A few years ago we all received a Social Security Statement in the mail every year without fail. Normally we would just take a quick look and then toss it into the trash. But as you get older, you start paying more attention to this statement. For those in their late 50′s and early 60′s this has become very important. After all the extra taxes you have paid over the years, hopefully you can reap some of the rewards!
But in recent years the Social Security Administration stopped providing the statement all together. and often when we ask clients for their Social Security Statement they do not have one or do not know how to obtain an estimate/copy of their benefits.
Whether it was to reduce costs or to optimize performance of the Social Security Administration stopped mailing the notices and put up a calculator that you could use to estimate your future Social Security Income or SSI. Still not an idea solution until recently.
It is funny how something that may impact the lives of all Americans, meaning the difference of thousands of dollars each month, receives less importance that a dog doing cute tricks or a pet bunny with a penchant for eating lollipops.
Regardless, everyone may now go to:
http://www.socialsecurity.gov/mystatement/
and sign up and view your statement online. For retirement planning, it is essential to have access to this statement to maximize your social security benefit over your lifetime in addition to optimizing the withdrawal rates from your various retirement accounts.
For those of you wondering how to optimize your SSI, you need to take into account life expectancy, marital status, tax returns, benefit amounts, retirement accounts/values and inflation for a complete analysis.