How to Read Your Social Security Statement

Retirement Answer Man

Roger Whitney, CFP®, CIMA®, RMA, CPWA®

Education, Investmentmanagement, Saving, Self-improvement, Careerplanning, Retirement, Business, Lifeplanning, Investing, Retirementplanning, Financialplanning, Retirementpodcast

4.6 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 17 September 2025

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

💬 SHOW NOTES

In this episode, we focus on empowering you to navigate retirement with confidence. We break down the process of reading a Social Security statement, examining each section and its significance. Additionally, we tackle listener questions regarding retirement strategies, second mortgages, and Roth conversions. Join us for practical insights that will help you make informed decisions as you approach this new chapter in life.

OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE OF THE RETIREMENT ANSWER MAN

(00:00) Today on the show we are going to walk through how to read a social security statement.
(01:10) Roger talks about doing extensive blood work every year and the similarities between the protocol of blood tests and retirement planning.

PRACTICAL PLANNING SEGMENT

(09:52) Sign up for the Noodle to watch a video of Roger walking through the Social Security statement.
(10:30) Roger breaks down the Social Security statement section by section- go to SSA.gov to get a pdf version of your statement.
(17:07) Roger reads through a few of the Important Things to Know bullet points on page two of the statement.

LISTENER QUESTIONS

(21:21) Jeff asks if there is any difference in retirement strategy if he decides to delay retirement until age 70.
(25:22) Mary says she is going through a divorce at age 63 and recently started listening to the podcast to educate herself on retirement and asks for advice for finding a retirement planner.
(29:36) Julie says her husband is looking at sudden retirement at age 59 ½. She wants to know if there are any episodes or resources Roger can direct him to to get a great overview of retirement.
(32:48) Joy has a question about ROTH conversions.

SMART SPRINT

(34:18) In the next seven days, make sure you have your most recent Social Security statement.

REFERENCES

FOLLOW US ON SOCIALS!

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the show dedicated to helping you not just survive retirement, but to have the confidence to lean in and rock it because you're focused on the right things.
0:12.4	Today on the show, we're going to do something practical.
0:14.4	We're just going to go over how to read a social security statement, the ones that you download from the Social Security Administration.
0:22.7	We're just going to walk through that section by section. In addition to that, we're going to
0:26.9	answer some of your questions related to finding a retirement planner, second mortgages,
0:33.9	in retirement, Roth conversions, all sorts of things. I am back in, I guess my HQ in Texas, got home last week.
0:42.5	It's hot.
0:43.5	It's hot in Texas.
0:45.3	And the air conditioning in my upstairs studio is not working.
0:50.8	So it's like 90 degrees up here.
0:52.8	But we're going to power through it and hopefully my
0:55.0	sweat will not short out the circuits on my mixer board. Before we get to the main topic of
1:02.4	reading a social security statement, I want to talk about testing. I just scheduled my blood
1:09.1	tests here later this week. And I do extensive blood tests every six months.
1:13.5	I pay a little extra through function health to test a lot of different markers.
1:17.7	So I go in, they take like eight vials of blood, and then I go in like four days later,
1:22.2	and they do another eight vials.
1:23.6	I've learned my lesson.
1:24.6	I got to make sure I eat right after, Otherwise, I'm just going to balk.
1:28.5	But there are a lot of similarities to the ritual or the protocol of blood tests and retirement planning.
1:37.8	When we do retirement planning and we run a feasibility test, we put out what our goals are. We organize our financial resources,
1:45.6	and then we test the feasibility of that. Individual tests have a lot of benefits. They give us a
	...

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