Getting more out of your Social Security check

Bob Powell, Editor of Retirement Daily, explains how you can make you Social Security check last longer.

Transcript

00:00For folks who are living on Social Security and have just received their cost of living adjustment

00:06and they're wondering how they're going to get by in a world where inflation and egg prices and

00:11whatnot are on the rise, the key thing is always to go back and look at your expenses and to look

00:16at what are your essential expenses and what are your discretionary expenses. And if there's any

00:21room in the budget to cut back on your discretionary expenses, that would be the first order of

00:26business. The next thing is to look at your essential expenses and what are the things that

00:31you can cut. Maybe it's your heating bill and maybe it's lowering the temperature in your house by a

00:37degree or two. Maybe it's looking at things like auto insurance and increasing the deductible that

00:42you might have. So look for little ways that you can sort of reduce your expenses so that at least

00:48the limited increase in your Social Security benefit can go a little bit farther than it might have if

00:53you just left all your expenses unreviewed. When I think about the Social Security Trust Fund becoming

00:59depleted in 2033, there's a potential for a 21% cut in your benefit across the board. And one of the ways

01:09that you can plan for this is a couple ways. One is to sort of look at your current living expenses

01:15and your current sources of income and to say, how can I get by on 20% less than what I'm receiving now

01:23from Social Security? The other is to create a worst case scenario. If you're young, for instance,

01:29there's a possibility that you might not face a potential benefit cut or you might face higher taxes

01:36and a benefit cut. So I think for many folks who are in their say 20s, 30s and 40s, you need to think

01:43about planning for Social Security as if it will be there in full or if it will not be there at all.

01:49And my advice would be, if you're in your 20s, 30s, 40s and even your 50s, is to plan for Social Security

01:56to not be there at all and to rely more on your own personal savings to fund your retirement. It's impossible

02:03to predict the future, obviously, but one of the things that you want to do is to create scenarios. Best case,

02:08probable case, worst case scenarios and work around those as you think about potential benefit cuts

02:13to Social Security.