Wayne,

I'm 55 and will expect my social security when its time to collect. My full social security is not at age 65, but I believe 66.5. Yours based on your age may be 67.

This may be my favorite. This may have been the first woman to collect social security. When they started social security this woman payed into if for three years for the tune of about $24 dollars. Then lived to be 100 years old and collect about $23,000. Moral of the story is live long and prosper. Link below.

I graduated with twin brothers that lived up the street with me. Both were nice guys. One ended getting a girl pregnant right before graduation and had a baby. Later he had twin boys. He grew up one block from me and I knew him for a long time. I was back to Ohio visiting a number a times and he was in my parents basement hanging out with my younger brother playing games on the computer, smoking cigaretts, and drinking beer. He was back living with his parents up the street. Guy seemed as normal to me as anyone. Said he had a nervous breakdown and the doc said he should not be working. Because of this said he was collecting social security. My dad said it was a decent amount.

Many years ago my sister inlaw's brother commited suicide, and he had a son. This was before I new her. She said that he or maybe the mother was then able to collect social security because of this. He was a fairly young man when he commited suicide.

Social security appears to cover more than just retirement. Bottom line is one time I calculated how much I paid in and thought it would be nice maybe to have lump sum. We have been paying into it for a lot more than 3 years so maybe living to 100 won't be as good for us.

See link below on 100 year old woman.