How Your Parents Got Social Security All Wrong

Are your parents struggling to live on Social Security alone? They may have been right about your friends in high school, but they were dead wrong about retirement.

Social Security benefits are a fabulous perk for the tax-paying American retiree. But they're not without complexity. Anyone can make mistakes that decrease their benefit substantially -- such as retiring too early or not correcting errors in their earnings history.

Yet the biggest blunder -- the issue that's hardest to overcome -- is believing that Social Security benefits alone can support a comfortable retirement. In reality, the 2019 average Social Security benefit of $1,461 is only 40% higher than the federal poverty level.

Source Fool.com