3 Popular Ways to Maximize Your Social Security Benefit

The average senior on Social Security today collects $1,543 a month. Now, combined with withdrawals from a retirement plan or ongoing payouts from a pension, that could make for a very nice lifestyle.

But many people don't retire with a lot of money or collect pension income, and if you're behind in savings, then it's especially crucial that you get as much money out of Social Security as possible. Here are three popular ways to do just that.

Your Social Security benefit is calculated based on how much you're paid during your most profitable 35 years on the job. But what that also means is that if you don't work a full 35 years, you'll have a figure of $0 factored into your personal benefit equation for each year you're without income.

Source Fool.com