For Americans at almost all income levels, Social Security is the sacred, mysterious foundation of retirement income planning.
The program turned 90 Aug. 14.
The Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies found recently when it surveyed 10,009 Americans ages 18 and older that 32% of all participants who were not business owners predicted that Social Security would be their primary source of retirement income.
So did 13% of the participants with annual household income of $200,000 and higher.
In 2016, the Spectrem Group conducted a survey of wealthy U.S. investors ages 55 and older: Twenty-nine percent of the participants with $5 million or more in household assets who were not yet receiving Social Security benefits estimated that they would get 25% or more of their monthly income from Social Security.
Even for affluent Americans, Social Security is a big deal.
One little problem: Typical Americans know that Social Security is important but have only a hazy idea of how it works.
The Nationwide Retirement Institute recently conducted a survey of 1,812 U.S. adults ages 18 and older who receive or expect to receive Social Security retirement benefits.
Only 14% of the participants said they were very confident about their knowledge about Social Security. Most had trouble with a 15-question Social Security knowledge test.
More than 60% got five of the simplest questions right. They knew, for example, that there is a cap on how much a retiree can receive in Social Security benefits. They knew that Social Security might offer benefits for a worker's spouse and children.
But half or more of the participants missed seven of the questions.
See the accompanying gallery for the seven questions that gave the Nationwide survey participants the most trouble.
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