Not Checking Your Earnings Record
Your earning records will be a major factor in your benefits, as these will dictate how much money you’ll be entitled to once you retire. Not keeping track of them is a huge mistake that a lot of people make, regardless of how close they are to retirement.
How do these errors occur? Well, sometimes employers fail to report correct earnings. In other cases, if you got married or divorced, your name change may not have been processed correctly, and the only way to find these things out if you do regular checks.
How regular, you might be wondering? Well, once a year should be enough- so that means you should check your statements even while working. It’ll be easier for you to gather proof of your earnings during this time. Once you get all the proof, send your W-2 or pay stubs to the Social Security Administration.
We say this because digging up for proof may be far more difficult for you if you wait 10 or even 20 years. A lot of people are sadly in this position because they did not think to check their records early on. It gets worse if you used to have a job at a company that no longer exists! Avoid all this headache by being diligent with your paper trail!
