Social Security Made Simple: Social Security Retirement Benefits and Related Planning Topics Explained in 100 Pages or Less (Financial Topics in 100 Pages or Less)

Book is well written, covers everything I wanted and more. Author Mike Piper also has a website open social security dot com, where you can investigate strategies for when to take social security too. Highly recomend both, as navigating social security decisions can be tricky.

Highly recommend you use this book in conjunction with Mr. Piper's - Open Social Security online calculator. It's the only calculator I could find that provides quick and easy Net Present Values for your retirement scenarios. We were particularly interested in picking our benefit dates and this $5 Kindle book plus their free calculator filled the bill. Note, there is a dropdown menu at the top of the calculator that it took me a while to notice: "Certain situations require additional input". That dropdown gives you the opportunity to (among other things) vary the discount rate, to see how sensitive the results are to greater returns on your cash.

Excellent simple summary, comprehensive but not overly detailed, great bullet items and rules of thumb. Over the last several years I've reread this book several times (it's a quick read), and every time it's been an invaluable use of my time to remind me of the key issues. This is the ONE book that I keep going back to for Social Security.

This book has latest info on SS. Plus you can send email to author for clarifications and he responded immediately. A must read book to avoid lifetime mistakes.

I have been studying Social Security for myself and my friends and relatives for a while now. It's crazy that it seems so complicated. There are different rules for singles, married, divorced and widowed and dependant people. So, he has different chapters for each of us, plus quick summaries at the end of the book with advice for your particular situation. Timing is crucial when deciding when to begin taking benefits, and he helps us understand the numbers. The author, Mike Piper who is a CPA, has a gift for explaining the complexities in a straightforward manner. The price is reasonable too. I believe this edition went to print at the end of 2022. I highly recommend it.

This book is short and sweet. Written for the average citizen without knowledge of Social Security issues. Each chapter has a wonderful "Simple Summary" that highlights the main points.I read this book in advance of my phone meeting with Social Security Admin re survivor's benefits. I'd noted all relevant passages in the book. The SSA meeting went very smoothly and everything that the SSA rep talked about matched the info in this book. I felt very well-prepared for my SSA meeting. Thank you, Mike Piper!

I was disappointed, but maybe I should have looked at the topics more thoroughly before buying. For the disability community, a lot of normally simple issues become difficult because of the number of little known “special” rules. What I hoped would be (but was not) in this book was topics such as: DAC (disabled adult child), “Child-In-Care” benefits, the Pickles amendment rules, and overall claiming strategies with these topics in consideration. The book was good, but not helpful for what I needed for having a child with disabilities when I start taking SSA benefits.

Lays out important details in logical and easy to follow format. A great value at the low price; a must read, no matter how far from claiming.