Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Social Security Administration Updates Antiquated Retirement Calculator

The Social Security Administration has finally revamped their retirement calculator. Now it's a heck of lot easier to find the answer to the question: How much am I going to get? The SSA calls the new calculator its "Retirement Estimator" and it's a major improvement of their old versions. After you imput a little personal information (Name, Maiden Name (if any), Social Security Number, DOB, birthplace, and mother's maiden name) the calculator links to your earnings history on file with SSA to provide you with an estimate of your benefit. No longer do you have to input all that income data yourself. You can even do "what if" scenarios to find out how your benefit would be affected by future changes such as taking a lower or higher paying job or stopping work before you can collect benefits. What could be easier?