Why you should verify your Social Security contributions regularly.

        The amount of money deducted from your paycheck, 6.2% of your gross income, which is reported to the Social Security Administration (SSA) may not be the same on record. Any error with the SSA's records will have an impact on the amount of social security benefits you are eligible to receive. The SSA offers a service you can utilize once a year to verify your contributions with their records indicated in your W-2 tax forms received each year from your employer. If you do not have a copy of your past W-2 forms, then contact your employer requesting a duplicate. The SSA is liable for any errors for the past seven years. Therefore, request to receive a form to verify your social security contributions by contacting the SSA at 1-800-772-1213 or http://www.ssa.gov ensuring your contributions are not in error. Ensure your request occurs midyear to allow adequate time for the information to be accurately reported. Otherwise, you may not receive the SSA information for the previous tax year.

        The information received will also provide an estimation of your projected earnings at the time of retirement, assuming the SSA will have enough funds in the future. Regardless if you believe social security benefits will not exist when you reach retirement or not, you should still verify the information in case adequate funds will be available. Social security should not be considered your sole source of income for retirement because it is meant to provide enough money to live, not enough to enjoy life. Some money at retirement is better than none!

        The government is considering allowing individuals the opportunity to invest a portion of their social security benefits in an investment medium other than government bonds. If such a proposal occurs, accurate SSA records will be important. A thousand dollar error now can result in tens of thousands of dollars less income in the future due to the effect of compounding.


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