What happened to those Social Security benefit estimates I used to get?

In a cost cutting effort, the Social Security Administration stopped mailing most of those paper copies of your estimated benefits in April, 2011.

No matter what your feelings are about the SSA, it is never too early to start planning for your future financial stability.  Your Social Security benefits may play an important part of that planning.  Don’t be the guy who waits until he sixty-something, needs some cash and signs up for benefits online only to find out about a very meager monthly check.  Maximizing your monthly benefits requires that you have the right information and then take the right actions at the right times.  Your statement of estimated benefits is one of several pieces of information that you need to make the proper decisions.

The statement is still available to you at:  http://ssa.gov/mystatement.  You will have to set up an account and answer a few questions for security reasons. WARNING TO NIGHT OWLS: You can only set up your account during “regular service hours”:   Mon-Fri  5am – 1am Eastern time  Sat 5am -11pm   Sun 8am – 11:30pm

If you want to be surprised, look at the difference between the benefits you will receive if you retire at 62 compared to waiting until you are seventy.  Unless you already have millions in the bank, it is important for you to get to know the workings of the SSA.

Good Luck

Rick