I love putting puzzles together. My daughter and I compete every year at Christmas to put together two 85-piece round ornaments. Over time, I have come up with a strategy that works pretty well, and while my eyesight isn’t what it used to be, I can still hold my own.

There are over 500 different pieces to the Social Security puzzle that you need to strategically look at to maximize what you can get. Over a lifetime, this can amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars in retirement savings gained.

There are four components in determining how much you will receive:

• Based on your full retirement age, Social Security looks back on your earnings history and calculates your “primary insurance amount” on the highest 35 year earnings.

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Danielle Howard, CFP

Danielle Howard is a Certified Financial Planner and owner of Wealth By Design, a holistic financial life planning firm based in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.

The 500+ piece Social Security puzzle

There are four components in determining how much you will receive:

Danielle Howard, CFP

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