Each stage of life — youth, middle age, retirement — comes with its own set of financial concerns. Luckily, just by having a better understanding of the Social Security program you should be able to calm some of those concerns.

The first thing you need to know is that Social Security is much more than a retirement program. Of the 50 million Americans receiving Social Security benefits, nearly one-third are not retired workers or their dependents. They are severely disabled workers and their families, or the survivors of a deceased worker covered by Social Security. These non-retirement Social Security benefits can be especially important to young workers because about one in eight young people will die before retirement, and about one in four will become disabled.

While the death of a husband, wife or parent is emotionally devastating, it can often be financially devastating as well. Social Security provides a monthly survivors benefit check to help the family of a deceased worker continue on.

Social Security disability protection is equally valuable. Relatively few workers have an employer-provided, long-term disability policy. With Social Security, however, the average worker has the equivalent of a disability insurance policy that would pay monthly benefits to both the worker and his or her family, based on his or her lifetime earnings. So you can rest a little easier knowing that Social Security provides some measure of security, if life does not turn out as planned.

On the other hand, if you do work and retire as planned, Social Security is the foundation for a secure retirement. For the average wage earner, Social Security will replace about 40 percent of pre-retirement earnings. And you can earn a higher benefit by choosing to retire a little later instead of a little earlier.

The Social Security Statement that you receive in the mail each year provides an estimate of your retirement, survivors and disability insurance benefits. If you’d like to try out some different scenarios and see how different retirement ages and future earnings may change your retirement picture, visit our online Retirement Estimator at www.socialsecurity.gov/estimator. It’s a quick, accurate, and easy way to plan for your retirement. If you would like more information about these Social Security programs you can visit our website at www.socialsecurity.gov.

Question:

Once I retire, will my benefit amount be the same for the rest of my life?

Answer:

Once you start receiving benefits, each year you will receive a cost-of-living adjustment based on the rise in the consumer price index. And there is another way that your benefit might increase. If you work, you continue to pay Social Security taxes on your earnings even though you are receiving benefits. Because you pay these taxes, Social Security refigures your benefits to take into account your extra earnings. If your indexed earnings for the year are higher than the earnings that were used in the original benefit computation, Social Security substitutes the new year of earnings. The higher your earnings, the more your refigured benefit might be. To learn more about Social Security, visit www.socialsecurity.gov or call toll-free, (800) 772-1213, TTY (800) 325-0778.

Dave Sylte is the district manager at the Social Security Administration office in Austin.