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Under a restricted application, however, you could take just one or the other of the two benefits at 66, and then allow the other benefit to grow at 8% per year, until age 70. For example, depending on how much your own retirement benefit would be, you might file a restricted application for your own retirement benefit, and then let your larger spouse benefit grow to the maximum, switching to it at age 70. Or, if by allowing your own retirement benefit to grow would yield a higher benefit, you could instead file a restricted application for just the ex- spouse benefit at 66, and then switch to your own higher benefit at age 70. You will need professional help to make this determination. The extra money you receive using this strategy accumulates over a typical retirement, and can mean a significantly higher benefit when you are older and need it the most..The Social Security trustees now anticipate that when the old age and survivor fund runs out of money in 2034, it will be able to pay only 76% of the retirement and survivor benefits otherwise due to recipients..Sound like we're headed for a vicious cycle? The sheer paralysis that lawmakers have contended with in responding to our current sluggish economy over the past two years is an early warning that we are nearing the edge. Even so there are still some who brush off anxiety over Social Security's financing by saying "Social Security is an easy fix.".Retirees need to pay attention to income from tax-deferred retirement accounts, pensions, annuities and Social Security benefits, in addition to other streams of income from any jobs, rental property, or income from a business. Failing to pay the right amount throughout the year could subject you to a tax penalty next April when your federal return is filed..Estimates by the Social Security Administration indicate that if the taxable maximum were eliminated, and the payroll tax of 12.4% were applied to all earnings, that program solvency would be extended as much as 40 years. This includes allowing retired workers credit for benefits on the higher earnings. And not only would lifting the taxable maximum keep the program financed well into future, it would pay for providing a more fair and slightly higher COLA using the CPI-E..Get routine physicals and screenings done prior to the start of.The previous changes have not only resulted in cutting the growth of COLAs received by Social Security recipients, but those of military retirees and COLA recipients in all other federal benefit programs as well. They came after a 1996 government commission headed by economist Michael Boskin said the CPI overstated the rate of inflation, and thus "overpaid" COLA recipients. Proponents of slowing COLA growth today make the same argument..To learn how much COLA cuts would cost you, try TSCL's Chained COLA calculator..During the debate over the debt limit, you undoubtedly heard the President try to scare you into believing Social Security checks would not come. Let me be blunt. The federal government takes in nearly seven times more than it needs every month to pay Social Security checks. The money was there. If checks didn't come, it would have been because the President had chosen not to pay them. You did not read that wrong. If you had not received your Social Security payment, it was because the President has directed the Secretary of the Treasury not to pay it.