Social Security is likely to be critical to your financial security in retirement. How critical? Well, consider that it supplies about 30% or more of elderly Americans’ retirement income, with 37% of men and 42% of women getting 50% or more of their income.
Thus, the more you can get from the program, the better — and recently, the maximum monthly benefit was $3,895 — or about $46,740 annually. That might sound pretty good, but read on — because there’s a good chance you won’t be collecting that much.