6 Steps to Take With Your Social Security Strategy Before Summer Ends

The stock market’s summer lull is a good time to review your Social Security plans.

Retirees should review their liquidity and the timing of benefit claims.

Summer is usually a quieter time for stocks, when the Federal Reserve "goes silent" and pauses its economic guidance between its mid-June and late-September policy meetings. That window is an ideal time to step back from stocks and review your Social Security strategies. Let's review six simple moves you can make to optimize those goals before the summer ends.

The first thing you should do is go to ssa.gov and download your latest Social Security Statement. You should check if your top 35 years of earnings -- used to calculate your baseline benefit -- are recorded accurately. Any missing or incorrect data can reduce your benefits.

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If you start claiming your Social Security benefits at age 62, your monthly benefits will be permanently reduced by up to 30%. You can only receive the full benefit if you start claiming after your Full Retirement Age (FRA) of 66 to 67, depending on the year you were born.

For every year you wait after your FRA to start claiming benefits, you'll receive a permanent increase of 8% until you turn 70. Those annual increases cap out at age 70.

Therefore, it's a good time to review all of your liquid assets to see if you can cover your living costs during the "bridge" years between your 62nd birthday and your FRA. If you don't, it could be the right time to sell some of your non-liquid assets or allocate more of your portfolio to income-generating dividend stocks or fixed-income investments.