Excerpt
SUMMARY: The longer you wait before cashing in on Social Security benefits, the greater the financial reward. But many don’t wait until age 70. There’s a range of loopholes and “secrets” that can improve your benefits, a fact economics correspondent Paul Solman discovered during a tennis game with friend and Social Security expert Larry Kotlikoff. Their new book, “Get What’s Yours,” shares that knowledge.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): Most Americans depend on Social Security in retirement, and yet navigating the system is often complex and confusing.
Our economics correspondent, Paul Solman, has co-authored a new book on the ins and outs of the benefit system. And, tonight, he shares some of what he’s learned.
It’s part of our ongoing reporting Making Sense, which airs every Thursday on the “NewsHour.”
PAUL SOLMAN (NewsHour): It’s often said that aging America faces a retirement crisis, and, according to the AARP, the main source of income for nearly half of Americans in older age is Social Security, a simple system established during the Great Depression to provide a safety net for the indigent in their old age.
Today, it’s become a mountain of rules, more than 2,000 of them, successfully climbed only by those who get good guidance from Social Security or from someone like economist Larry Kotlikoff. A few years ago at this tennis court on a somewhat more hospitable day, he asked me a question.
LARRY KOTLIKOFF, Boston University: What are you doing about Social Security?
PAUL SOLMAN: And I said:
We have it all figured out, as I absolutely thought we did. We’re going to wait until 70, and then we get the maximum benefit.
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