9 Ways to Not Run Out of Money in Retirement

9) Maximize Your Social Security Benefits

Social Security payments are guaranteed to be paid every month as long as you live. These payments are adjusted to the annual inflation. You can help your finances by doing everything you can to maximize your payments. You can do this by deciding when to sign up for payments and coordinating your claiming decisions with your spouse. Every year that you postpone claiming benefits will increase your monthly payment by 8%. For married couples, the spouse can claim half as much as the benefit of the higher earner, and windows or widowers can inherit their late spouse’s benefit payments if those payments are higher than the payment that they get on their own. So, to sum it up, if you wait until you are 67 to draw benefits you will get a higher monthly benefit than if you start drawing Social Security benefits at age 62.