Dear Help Me Retire, I am 63 and decided I want to go ahead and start drawing my Social Security retirement benefits. I am still working full time. I was told that I cannot receiv

We carefully adjusted our living expenses so that we could be satisfied with less income compared to our working years. It also helped that we had some control over the hours we worked and that our work involved helping people. Both of these conditions helped us enjoy our semi-retirement more.

If you're coming up on your retirement date without a lot of money in savings, you're not alone. Many people struggle to build savings for retirement due to a variety of factors, from sluggish wages to medical bills and other unforeseen expenses that get in the way of steady IRA or 401 (k) contributions.

Key Points You won’t be forced to claim Social Security if you don’t want benefits. Once you turn 70, there’s nothing to be gained by waiting to signing up. Understand the program’s rules so you don’t lose out on benefits.