Author: Sean Williams, The Motley Fool

In short, beneficiaries will be receiving a “raise” next year, but that’s not necessarily reason to cheer.

Social Security’s nearly 64 million beneficiaries won’t want to miss this announcement.

A maximized monthly payout doesn’t always equate to an optimized lifetime benefit.

Reducing Social Security’s long-term expenditures is one piece to a very big puzzle.

An idea thrown around by the president last week, even if it was just off-the-cuff, could put the program in even worse shape than it already is.