Readers are always telling me they are worried about the future of Social Security. And they say they are inclined to file for Social Security benefits before they originally planned to because they are convinced benefits will be dramatically cut as part of any upcoming Social Security reform. They plan to do this because they want to be “grandfathered” into the current program.
My advice: NEVER make a decision about when to file for benefits based on assumed future cuts to Social Security. Why? Because benefit cuts are rare and usually involve ancillary kinds of benefits. And when they are major and affect almost everyone, they are phased in over a long period of time.
