IF YOU PARTICIPATE in a defined benefit pension plan, ask yourself two questions. First, what happens if your pension plan doesn’t pay as promised? Even if your employer seems committed to its pension plan today, much could change between now and when you retire—and perhaps even after you retire.
If you’re a public sector employee, maybe a fiscal crunch will force big budget cuts, including cuts to the pension plan. If you’re a private sector employee who works for a seemingly healthy company,

AMONG EXPERTS ON Social Security, there’s a strong consensus that most folks should delay benefits to get a larger monthly check—and yet the most popular age to claim Social Security is 62, the earliest possible age.
No doubt many retirees take benefits right away because they need the money, they’re in poor health or they haven’t given the issue much thought. What about those who have wrestled with the topic—and still insist that claiming at 62 is the right strategy?

THERE’S FREQUENT TALK of fixing Social Security so that the benefits paid out don’t greatly exceed the Social Security payroll taxes that are collected. There are different fixes being bandied about, including raising the eligibility age for Social Security and even means-testing benefits.
Eventually, there will likely be some fix made, but you shouldn’t be too alarmed by that prospect. First, Social Security’s unfunded liability is considerably smaller than that for Medicare, and thus it could probably be addressed without action that’s too drastic.

YOU MAY BE ENTITLED to spousal benefits based on your ex-husband or ex-wife’s earnings record, assuming your marriage lasted at least 10 years. If you remarry, however, you lose this right. Instead, you could potentially claim benefits based on your new spouse’s earnings record.
Similarly, you may be eligible for survivor benefits based on your late ex-spouse’s earnings record. Again, the marriage must have lasted at least 10 years. As with a married spouse,

IF YOUR SPOUSE DIES, you can receive his or her benefit as a survivor benefit. The larger your spouse’s benefit, the more you receive.
Keep a few key details in mind. If you’re at your full retirement age or later, you will be entitled to 100% of your spouse’s benefit as a survivor benefit. If you claim earlier, there will be a reduction. There are slight differences between the full retirement age for regular Social Security benefits and the full retirement age for survivor benefits.

IN THE BUDGET passed by Congress in October 2015, there were two key changes made to Social Security, which affected both the popular “file and suspend” strategy and the use of so-called restricted applications.
Before the budget law was passed, if you opted to suspend benefits once you reached your full retirement age, your spouse and children could continue to receive benefits based on your earnings record. That remains true for those who suspended before April 2016—but under the new rules,

WHEN YOU CLAIM Social Security retirement benefits, it isn’t just your spouse who can receive benefits based on your earnings record. If you have dependent children, they too may receive Social Security.
Unmarried children are eligible to receive benefits if they are under age 18, up to age 19 if they’re still in high school, and at any age if they become disabled before age 22. Your children may be eligible to receive a sum equal to as much as half of your benefit as of your full retirement age.

WHAT IS THE BEST strategy for claiming Social Security benefits if you’re married—and you can’t take advantage of the loopholes closed by the 2015 Budget Act and discussed elsewhere? For most couples, it will make sense for the spouse with higher lifetime earnings to delay claiming benefits until age 70. Let’s be politically incorrect and assume that’s the husband.
Delaying until 70 ensures not only the maximum possible monthly benefit for the husband, but also a handsome survivor benefit for his wife,

IF YOU’RE MARRIED, you can receive a spousal benefit equal to as much as half your husband’s or wife’s benefit as of his or her full retirement age. If you claim a spousal benefit before your own full retirement age, your benefit will be reduced.
The reduction can be severe. Check out the Benefits for Spouses calculator available at SocialSecurity.gov. If your full retirement age is 66, your spousal benefit will be reduced by 30% if you claim at 62,

WHEN SHOULD RETIREES claim Social Security? Let’s dispense with a few preliminaries. If you have young children, it may be worth claiming at age 62, so your kids can receive family benefits. Meanwhile, if you’re married and you were the main breadwinner, it’s probably worth delaying benefits to age 70 to get the larger monthly check. This is true even if you are in poor health. The reason: Your benefit may live on as a survivor benefit for your spouse.

HOW MUCH WILL YOU give up in monthly benefits if you claim Social Security early? To find out, you need to know your full Social Security retirement age—a crucial piece of information, especially if you’re married and trying to figure out the best strategy for claiming benefits.
If you were born between 1943 and 1954 and hence your full Social Security retirement age is 66, your benefit will be reduced by 25% if you claim benefits at age 62,

TO BE ELIGIBLE for Social Security, you need to have worked and paid Social Security payroll taxes for at least 10 years, so you earn the required 40 credits. Your benefit is calculated based on your 35 years with the highest earnings. If you don’t work for the full 35 years, you are still eligible for Social Security, but your benefit will be lower.
If you claim benefits before your full Social Security retirement age,

THERE’S A TREND TOWARD claiming Social Security retirement benefits later. Still, many continue to start benefits at 62, the youngest possible age. If these 62-year-olds are in poor health, claiming benefits right away might be the right choice. But many likely made a mistake.
You can claim Social Security as early as age 62 or as late as age 70. The longer you delay, the larger your benefit will be. The amount of the increase will depend on the year you were born and hence your full Social Security retirement age.

CONSIDER THIS HELLISH scenario: You retire with what you imagine is plenty of money—and you’re immediately hit with a brutal market decline, even as you pull out a growing sum from your portfolio each year to cover rising living expenses.
This double drain quickly depletes your savings. A few years later, the markets bounce back. But you don’t benefit much because, by then, your portfolio has been whittled down by your need for spending money.

BY THE LATE 1990s, with almost two decades of robust investment returns under their belts, investors would talk about 6%, 8% and even 10% as a reasonable rate at which to draw down a retirement portfolio. But researchers begged to disagree—and the financial markets provided brutal confirmation, hitting stock investors with back-to-back bear markets in 2000–02 and 2007–09.
Today, 4% is considered a safe withdrawal rate (though even that number has been called into question).