Social Security credits are more interesting and a lot more complicated than you might think Hi Friendos, Today’s topic is Social Security credits – how you earn them and what you get when you do. Earning one Social Security “credit” Earning a credit is like a pass/fail class, you either make it or you don’t. […]
You Should Understand Your Largest Asset: Social Security Hi Friendos, The very first article I wrote for this website was called “You Should Understand Your Largest Expense.” I asserted that most people think their largest expense is housing, but in fact it is usually taxes. Well, it turns out that most Americans think their largest […]
Hi Friendos, Today I’m going to wrap up last week’s discussion of the Social Security “trust funds.” Last week we discussed how Social Security benefits are not paid for from general revenues of the federal government, but instead are paid for from so-called trust funds. The government accounting works like this: each year the level […]
Hi Friendos, Today we’ll continue our discussion of Social Security. We’ve talked about how you can establish an online account with the SSA (Social Security Administration) to review your earnings history, and last week we did a very high-level walk through of how monthly retirement benefits are calculated (the $ size of your future Social […]
Hi Friendos, Last month I started a discussion about Social Security retirement benefits. I’ll continue on this theme for a few weeks, exploring different aspects of the program, including why claims that it is “running out of money” are wrong. I suggested that it’s a good idea to establish an account with the Social Security […]
Hi Friendos, In September I wrote about my family finances binder. The “Social Security” tab has my and my spouse’s most recent statements from the Social Security Administration (“SSA”). Social Security is an incredibly popular program among Americans of all political leanings and helps millions live above our official poverty line. You will get Social […]
Frequently Taxed Questions 