For people who are more than a decade or so away from retirement, however, some sort of downsizing is more likely. The Boston College Center for Retirement Research’s Social Security Fix-It Book outlines a number of possibilities for shoring up the system by trimming benefits, including raising the full retirement age (currently between 66 and 67 for anyone born in 1943 or later), means-testing and changing the cost-of-living adjustment.
In general, the younger and the more affluent you are, the more likely your benefit will be squeezed in some way — and the more you should take that possibility into account in your retirement saving and spending plans.
2. When should I claim benefits?
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Walter Updegrave is the editor of RealDealRetirement.com, a site that offers easy-to-understand advice on retirement planning. Walter was previously an editor at MONEY Magazine and wrote the Ask the Expert column for CNNMoney.com. Walter has written four books on retirement planning and investing, including We’re Not in Kansas Anymore: How to Retire Rich in a Totally Changed World.
Follow him @RealDealRetire or if you would like to ask him a question, send it to walter@realdealretirement.com.
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