15 Expert Lessons for Retirement Planning (Collection)

Where Does Social Security Fit Into Your Retirement?

Frank Armstrong, III and Paul B. Brown

Let’s start with the most important question: Do we think that Social Security is going to be around to augment your retirement? Yes, but with qualifications.

Many people are concerned that they won’t get any Social Security at all because the system is going bust, and it is certainly in real trouble. (We will explain exactly how bad off it is later.) However, it’s not going away. It’s too important to the American people—hard though it is to believe, for some 20% of retirees, Social Security is their only source of income, and millions of others depend on it to a large degree—and politics being what drives our system, it’s here to stay.

The follow-up ...