Social Security Fd 3e (For Dummies)

Good book

Jonathan Peterson did a great job in describing the Social Security system in his book Social Security for dummies. I especially like the format of the dummies books and this one was no exception.The one beef I have with Mr. Peterson is his consistent assertion that Social Security keeps up with inflation. I respectfully disagree. Although the Social Security benefit is increased each year for inflation, the Social Security Administration uses the general CPI-W. This particular version of the CPI estimates how the costs for everyone have increased and often under estimates the cost-of-living for the elderly where medical expenses can be a much larger share of a household’s budget. So it is true that Social Security is increased for inflation, just not representative of the increase for the elderly. This means that the Social Security benefit is not keeping up with inflation for the elderly that the program is meant for.Other than that, I found Social Security for dummies very informative.

I purchased the 3rd edition not realizing that the 4th was already available. this book gives you a good starting point in your ss adventures. I would get the 4th edition for more up to date information.

I was very disappointed with this book. I've read other books in the "Dummies" series and they were really good. This book gives a high level overview of Social Security with lots of detail about the history of Social Security (interesting but of no practical use at all). It lacks detail. For example - I want to know whether the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) applies to Spousal Benefits. The book doesn't say, even though it's a pretty obvious question when the book mentions WEP and Spousal Benefits. This is the level of detail that I would have expected in this book. There are many other examples where the bare information is given but not the detail. I've read "Get what's yours - the secrets of maxing out your Social Security". That book is much better at giving answers to the questions that many of us will have. I got a lot more information from the Social Security website than from the "Social Security for Dummies" book.

This book helped us sort through the process.Easy to grasp the concepts with the way the topics are laid out in the book.

Read this book thoroughly before you draw your social security to avoid as many probable mistakes as you can. You will be glad you did. Information is Power.

What you wanted to know about social security and didn’t know what to ask.

I truly love the Dummie Books. This book has A lot of information in it that I can refer to over and over again. And there is a lot of overwhelming information. Wow!