Tag: social security

In a world of IRAs, bonds, annuities and investment property, one retirement benefit often gets overlooked, or not discussed at all, by some financial advisers: Social Security.

In retirement, you need to create as much fixed, guaranteed income as you can. Social Security is just as valuable as any of your other assets.

You can never plan too soon for your later years in life, I tell all my clients, because our later years tend to sneak up on us sooner than we think.

In my ongoing six-part series on financial planning, I am covering almost everything a couple needs to know on the subject, but were too uniformed to ask.

This second part is no exception: What you should expect your financial advisor and/or his/her team of advisors. And, as I cautioned you in my first installment, it is important that after your advisor(s) asks you questions that you continue to ask questions for clarity and a complete understanding of how to plan for your "golden years."

Americans worry a lot about retirement.

Will their savings hold out? Will Social Security still be around? Will healthcare costs gouge a great hole in their finances?

What many of them may not be aware of, though, is that if handled correctly their life insurance policies could play a role in making retirement a little more secure.

One of the big tricks for having a successful retirement is to make sure you have enough cash flow to pay your bills and still be able to enjoy life. Few people have pensions any more. Social Security only helps so much.

In a nation that debates nearly everything, this topic creates almost no disagreement. Americans aren’t saving anywhere near enough for retirement, setting the stage for a potentially dreary time ahead for many when they reach the closing act of their lives. In fact, a study by the Economic Policy Institute found that almost half of American families have no retirement-account savings at all.

While the widespread-savings shortfall is a given, a consensus is trickier to find when it comes to advice on just how much of your weekly salary you need to stash away if you want your retirement to be secure.

How about this idea for a new reality TV show: "Survivor: Maximize your Social Security." Rather than getting voted off the island, contestants lose when they fail to get the most out of Social Security’s survivor benefit—one of the government program’s most important features for married couples.

Here is how our reality show works. When one spouse dies, the survivor (typically, but not always the woman) has the option to take the larger of two benefits: her own or 100 percent of her late spouse’s benefit. The game sounds simple, and for many couples, it is.