18% of Near-Retirees Are Unaware of 1 Key Social Security Feature

Social Security provides critical benefits to millions of retired seniors, and those who are near retirement may be banking on that income source for their golden years. But a new survey by MassMutual reveals that 18% of Americans aged 55 to 65 lack awareness of one important Social Security feature: annual cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs).

Social Security COLAs were introduced during the 1970s, and their purpose is to help seniors maintain their buying power in the face of inflation. Your monthly Social Security benefit is calculated by taking your average monthly wage over your 35 most profitable years in the workforce, adjusting it for inflation, and applying a special formula to that number.

That benefit is the amount you're entitled to collect each month, provided you file for Social Security at your full retirement age. Depending on your year of birth, that's either 66, 67, or somewhere in between.

Source Fool.com