Yes, I was referring to a private, FICA covered earnings employment pension.  Calling it a civilian pension is the result of too many years in the military and working with Fed workers who typically refer to private sector people as civilians.  If yo...

I believe calculate interest first and then reduce for inflation is the correct method.  The reason is the  principal and the compounded interest are real money values and the inflation reduction is an unrealized loss.  A bank account would show mult...

To add to what Gail said, the money they hold back in reduction of your benefit is tallied up at your FRA.  They figure out how many months of total benefits they held back from you and reduce the number of months you started early benefits.  They wi...

The WEP was implemented like doing surgery with a chainsaw instead of a scalpel.  I don't think a full repeal of the WEP is appropriate because if they did my wife would receive about $500/mo in SS when her total FICA taxes paid back in the 1980s was...

I applied for SS in Sept 2021 to start benefits in January 2022.  The progress steps on the MySocialSecurity page went quickly through steps 1 & 2 but paused on the step 3 approval until January 7, 2022.  They don't seem to issue the approval until t...