About Social Security Income

Social security today is considered a guaranteed benefit that retiring workers will have access to, but it is still a relatively recent invention, arising as it did out of President Roosevelt Franklin's "New Deal" initiatives to combat the market crash in 1929 known as "The Great Depression." Out of this crash, workers were left financially strapped, unemployed, and often ill-prepared for their retirement years.

The concept of Social Security involved workers paying into the program during their working years, which would leave them with a guaranteed level of minimal retirement income upon their retirement. To date, Social Security has been one of the most influential, helpful, and beloved governmental programs of all times. While there are many present day fears that Social Security will not be able to survive the economic hardships the nation is once again facing, the program has proved remarkably resilient, and in truth was created during circumstances equally difficult to those we are in today.

Social security income can be accessed by workers once they reach the age of 62. Experts urge that the longer a worker waits to draw down on their social income, the more monthly income they will have to draw from in later years. However, some individuals are forced to draw their benefits early, while others can wait. Either way, the Social Security Administration can assist workers to decide when to begin drawing down on their Social Security benefits by offering calculators that help workers know what they will draw monthly by beginning now versus waiting a year or more. A worker is not required to retire in order to begin drawing Social Security benefits, which can be a helpful perk to have if the worker simply wants to reduce hours, change vocations, or continue saving into a retirement fund for other reasons.