Get ‘Rosie’ outlook on retirement

“Rosie the Riveter” is an American icon representing women working in factories during World War II. These women filled in for the men who were away at war.

These “Rosies” also paid FICA on their wages, contributing to Social Security. More Rosies work today, and nearly 60 percent of people receiving benefits are women. Women tend to live longer than men, so Social Security’s inflationadjusted benefits help protect women. You can outlive your savings and investments, but Social Security is for life. Women provide their own protection when they work and pay taxes into the Social Security system. Women who have been married and had low earnings or who didn’t work may be covered through their spouses’ work.

Today’s Rosie will turn her “can-do” spirit to learning more about Social Security and what role it will play in her financial future. She rolls up her sleeves and sets up her my Social Security account (socialsecurity.gov/my account) to review her earnings. If she finds an incorrect posting, she’ll locate her W-2 form and contact Social Secu- rity to correct it because she knows these are the earnings used to figure her benefits.

She dives into understand- ing benefits at our planner pages at socialsecurity.gov/ planners. She examines how marriage, divorce, death of a spouse, work and other issues might affect her benefits. She studies our fact sheet When to Start Receiving Retirement Benefits at socialsecurity. gov/pubs/ to help her decide when it’s time to lay down the rivet gun. When the time is right, she will file for retirement benefits online at social security.gov/retire.