Making Social Security Work for You: Advice, Strategies, and Timelines That Can Maximize Your Benefits

Featured in The Washington Post

An up-to-date guide to getting the most out of Social Security under the new regulations that took effect on April 29, 2016.

Despite reports of Social Security's impending bankruptcy, Social Security remains an important part of most Americans' retirement plans. But will it be enough? Making Social Security Work for You teaches you what you need to know about Social Security retirement benefits and the options you can choose to help meet your retirement goals. In straightforward, easy-to-understand language, this compact guide provides advice on the advantages and disadvantages of delaying benefits as well as the best ways to maximize your benefits depending on your financial or marital situation.

Featuring a glossary of terms to help you better understand Social Security jargon; a full explanation on how the system works under the new regulations that took effect on April 29, 2016; and practical, actionable advice on how and when to save additional retirement funds, this book shows you how to make your retirement the best it can possibly be.

"Guy Birken brings her breezy style to explaining a system that can be mind-numbing." --The Washington Post

Emily Guy Birken is a Plutus Award–winning freelance writer specializing in the science of irrational money behaviors. Her work appears in AARP the Magazine, Fast Company, MSN Money, Yahoo! Finance, and Mental Floss. She is the author of The 5 Years Before You Retire, Choose Your Retirement, Making Social Security Work for You, End Financial Stress Now, and Stacked: Your Super-Serious Guide to Modern Money Management, written with Joe Saul-Sehy. You can visit her at EmilyGuyBirken.com.