Solution: Maximize Social Security Benefits
Of course, if you want to avoid retiring on Social Security alone, you’ll have to build savings while you’re working. If you can’t amass that big of a nest egg, make sure you don’t start collecting Social Security early at age 62. If you do that, your benefits could be permanently reduced by as much as 30 percent.
You can maximize your Social Security income by waiting to claim benefits until after your full retirement age. If you wait until age 70, the maximum benefit currently is $3,698 per month, which is almost $1,000 more than the maximum benefit for someone claiming benefits at the full retirement age of 66.
