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Most People Can’t Get the Maximum Benefit

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Most People Can’t Get the Maximum Benefit
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Tom Margenau
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If you read a recent USA Today article, you would have seen a story with this intriguing headline: “3 steps to claiming the $4,555 max monthly Social Security benefit.” And if you are pushing retirement age, you would of course want to read that story and get yourself locked into a heaping serving from the Social Security gravy train.

In a nutshell, the story says this. To get a maximum Social Security benefit, you’ve got to do these three things: 1) work for 35 years; 2) earn the maximum Social Security taxable salary every year; and 3) wait until you are 70 to claim Social Security.

Tom Margenau
Tom Margenau
Author
Tom Margenau worked for 32 years in a variety of positions for the Social Security Administration before retiring in 2005. He has served as the director of SSA’s public information office, the chief editor of more than 100 SSA publications, a deputy press officer and spokesman, and a speechwriter for the commissioner of Social Security. For 12 years, he also wrote Social Security columns for local newspapers, and recently published the book “Social Security: Simple and Smart.” If you have a Social Security question, contact him at [email protected]
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