3 Social Security Mistakes That Could Come Back to Haunt You
Chances are, you'll wind up relying on Social Security to a pretty substantial degree in retirement. Losing out on money in your benefits is therefore the last thing you want to do. But if you fall victim to the following mistakes, you could wind up regretting them for the rest of your life.
The amount of money you get to collect from Social Security each month in retirement isn't just an arbitrary number. Rather, your wages from your highest-paid 35 years in the workforce are averaged and indexed for inflation to arrive at your monthly benefit. But if you don't work a full 35 years, you'll have a $0 factored in for each year you're missing income. The more $0s you have, the more your benefits get driven down.
If you're nearing the end of your career but have an opportunity to put in a little more time in the workforce, it pays to do so if you don't have a full 35 years of earnings under your belt. Even if you did work a full 35 years, it could still pay to work a bit longer if your salary has increased substantially over time. That way, you get to replace a few lower-earning years with higher earnings to boost your monthly benefit.
Source Fool.com
