This book, subtitled “The Secrets to Maxing Out Your Social Security” is written by Laurence J Kotlikoff (Professor of Economics at Boston University), Philip Moeller (of PBS NewsHour) and Paul Solman (also of PBS NewsHour). With this lineup of heavyweights in the Social Security commentary space, you are right to expect a very comprehensive, easy-to-understand, explanation of the subject – and that’s just what you get.
This book covers every component of the Social Security retirement and disability benefit landscape with the aim toward taking action on those components that you have a degree of control over, in order to maximize your lifetime benefits. The authors are extremely well-versed in the ins and outs of the system, providing insights not found in many other texts.
In addition to the authors’ own lifetimes of experience in covering the subject, every fact in the book has been reviewed by former Social Security veterans for accuracy. This book is the real deal.
Get What’s Yours is conversational in style, providing many examples of real-life situations that the authors have dealt with in their own lives and those of readers/listeners in the past. Sprinkled throughout the book are examples of actual text from official Social Security rules, which are usually incomprehensible, often laughable, but these drill home the point that relying on Social Security’s official documents will leave the average person’s head spinning. This book interprets these rules so that the spinning can stop. The outcome is an excellent guide for all facets of the Social Security retirement benefit arena.
The only thing that could have improved the experience (albeit at the cost of lengthening the book considerably) would be to increase the type-size. I know many of my readers have commented on the fact that they love the 14-point font that I use in A Social Security Owner’s Manual for the ease of reading by “experienced” eyes.
With so much on the line, literally a lifetime of benefits, folks who are nearing or in the range of Social Security retirement benefit filing age can’t go wrong by investing in the valuable education provided by Get What’s Yours.
Sterling Raskie, MSFS, CFP®, ChFC®
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And if you’ve come here to learn about queuing waterfowl, I apologize for the confusion. You may want to discuss your question with Lester, my loyal watchduck and self-proclaimed “advisor’s advisor”.