There are millions of older Americans today who collect a monthly benefit from Social Security. For many of those people, those benefits spell the difference between being able to pay for basic expenses or not.
I have a very different plan for my Social Security benefits, though. It's a plan that allows me to worry less about the future of Social Security, which happens to be a bit precarious these days.
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How I hope to use my Social Security checks
While there's nothing wrong with banking on Social Security to cover basic expenses in retirement, I hope to use my monthly benefits as extra money -- money I can spend on things like hobbies and entertainment.
To pull this off, though, I recognize that I'll need a large nest egg. To that end, I've been saving very aggressively for retirement since my 20s. My hope is that my efforts will pay off in the form of a retirement account balance that covers my basic needs.
To be fair, I also intend to live somewhat frugally in retirement. I plan to downsize to a smaller home and move to an area where property taxes are cheaper.
Some of the services I pay for now may be things I don't have to outsource if I have more time to do them, like lawn care and house cleanings. So my hope is that between a strong savings effort and lower costs, I won't have to use my monthly Social Security checks for basic expenses.
A strategy that takes the pressure off
The reason I'm taking this specific approach to Social Security is twofold. First, I like the idea of being able to pay for my own basic needs in retirement, rather than having to rely on government benefits.
But I also know that Social Security is facing some financial difficulties. While benefits aren't at risk of going away completely, I do have my doubts about getting my monthly checks in full.
The Social Security Trustees recently reported that the program might have to cut benefits broadly in less than a decade unless lawmakers are able to find a way around that. But I don't have a lot of faith in lawmakers' ability to prevent Social Security cuts, even though benefits have never been slashed in the past.
Saving enough to cover my basic needs allows me to stress less over what happens with Social Security. The way I see it, if those benefits represent extra money, and they end up being smaller, that's a huge bummer. But if smaller benefits don't stop me from being able to stock my fridge or buy medication, I guess I can't complain too much.
A lot of people rely on Social Security to meet their essential needs in retirement, and that's a totally fine approach. But if you're able to build a strong nest egg and be less reliant on Social Security, you may find that you have more flexibility and peace of mind as retirement nears.
