As you are looking forward to the future it is important to have a good understanding of what you can expect from Social Security. If you want to be able to retire in true comfort you don’t want to rely too heavily on Social Security, but if you are like most people it is certainly going to represent a significant portion of your retirement income.
The first question that many individuals have about Social Security involves when they will become eligible to receive their full benefits. There is no one answer because your age of eligibility depends on the year during which you were born. For people born in 1954 and earlier who are not yet receiving Social Security full retirement age is 66. For individuals born in 1960 and after the full retirement age is 67.
For those born between 1955 and 1959 full retirement age is somewhere between 66 and 67. It goes up from 66 by two months per year. So if you were born in 1955 your full retirement age is 66 years and two months; if you were born in 1956 your full retirement age is 66 years and four months, and so on until 1960 when it becomes 67.
As for the amount of your benefit, that is going to vary depending on how much you paid into the program over the years. There is a maximum at the present time of $38,880 per year. However, the average Social Security payout is under $1100 per month and this underscores why it is so important to plan ahead in advance and not be too reliant on Social Security.
Comprehensive long-term financial planning is the key to a comfortable future. If you do not currently have a plan in place, right now would be a good time to take action to arrange for a consultation with a good SC estate planning lawyer.
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