Be Proactive When Planning How To Claim Social Security Benefits

Social Security is probably the most popular federal program there is, yet most people know very little about it.

There's a reason for that: Complex rules and benefit formulas make it extremely difficult to understand exactly how this important income source actually works.

The "Social Security Handbook," the document the Social Security Administration (SSA) produces and updates each year, contains nearly 3,000 rules that describe all the provisions for drawing benefits.

Then there's the "," which contains even more rules -- thousands of them -- to explain the rules in the handbook. At last count, there were 567 different sets of calculations to determine how and when to apply for benefits. And for married