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Today’s workers will need all the retirement security they can muster in old age, and for most people Social Security is the centerpiece. Here are some things you can do today to get the most out of Social Security tomorrow:

❯❯ Educate yourself about the program. By reading this book, you’re taking a big step in the right direction. In Appendix B, I connect you with a broader range of resources to further inform you on Social Security and other retirement concerns.

❯❯ Think about when you should claim benefits. It often makes sense to hold off, which will enable your benefit to grow. I go into that important issue in Chapter 3. For an overview from the SSA, go to www.ssa.gov/pubs/10147.html.

❯❯ Consider Social Security’s guaranteed benefit the foundation in a larger strategy for retirement security. Add up your assets. Look hard at your spending habits. Younger people have more time to plan, but older workers may also be able to take steps to improve their finances. If you need more money for the future, think about holding off retirement and working longer, even part time, as a way to stretch out your assets.

LESSONS FROM AN EARLY BENEFICIARY

Whatever you expect to get from Social Security, it’s a pretty safe bet you won’t fare as well as Aunt Ida. A retired legal secretary in Vermont, Ida May Fuller, known to friends as “Aunt Ida,” earned her place in Social Security history by receiving the first recurring monthly check – for $22.54 on January 31, 1940. (It wasn’t the first Social Security payment. That distinction goes to a Cleveland streetcar driver named Ernest Ackerman, who got a “lump sum” of 17¢ three years earlier.)

Aunt Ida’s experience can teach today’s retirees (and workers who will join them one day) a couple of lessons:

● You could be depending on Social Security for a very long time. Aunt Ida lived to 100. She collected benefits for 35 years, starting at age 65.

● The inflation protection provided by Social Security is critical. In the course of Aunt Ida’s life, her monthly benefit nearly doubled, from $22.54 to $41.30. That increase enabled her purchasing power to hold up, even as the cost of living soared. (Congress added regular inflation increases to the program toward the end of Aunt Ida’s life.)