An essential part of any solid personal financial plan is understanding how to make the most of your assets. For most Americans, the biggest financial asset they have isn’t their 401(k) or even their home—it’s Social Security.

Many of us don't see it that way. When we're young, it feels like a distant concept. In our prime earning years, it just looks like a line item taking a bite out of our paycheck. Even as retirement approaches, it's easy to assume the government just sets the amount and that's that.

But that’s a huge misconception. Social Security is a massive financial resource that you have a surprising amount of control over. To put it in perspective, let’s consider an example.

Imagine Sandy, a 50-year-old earning $50,000 a year. She has about three years' worth of her salary in a 401(k) and plans to retire at 62. If you add up all her major financial assets—her future earnings, her 401(k), her home equity, and her checking account—which one do you think is the largest?

It’s her lifetime Social Security benefits, valued at over $724,000. That’s more than her remaining lifetime earnings ($650,000) and far more than her 401(k) ($191,000).

Even for someone earning three times as much as Sandy, Social Security is still their second-largest asset, worth over $1.2 million. The numbers prove it: mastering your Social Security is a cornerstone of smart personal financial management. Here are ten things to know to make sure you get every penny you're entitled to.

1. Know All the Benefits You're Entitled To

Social Security is more than just a retirement check. There are actually thirteen different types of benefits available, and you’ve likely never heard of most of them. They include:

1. Retirement benefit
2. Disability benefit
3. Spousal benefit
4. Divorced spousal benefit
5. Child-in-care spousal benefit
6. Widow(er) benefit
7. Child benefit
8. Disabled child benefit
9. Mother (father) benefit
10. Divorced widow(er) benefit
11. Parent benefit
12. Grandchild benefit
13. Death benefit

These benefits come with a web of rules. For example, an ex-spouse can claim benefits on your record if you were married for at least ten years and they haven't remarried. Your young or disabled children may also be eligible for benefits once you start collecting your own. It's a complex system, but understanding what's available is the first step.

2. It’s a "Use It or Lose It" System

Social Security doesn’t automatically send you a check just because you’re eligible. You have to formally apply for every benefit. If you don't ask, you don't get.

I’ve met people in their mid-seventies who were still waiting for their checks to start, not realizing they had to file. By waiting past age 70, they were simply losing money every month. The administration will only pay up to six months of retroactive benefits, so someone who waits until 73 could have already lost out on tens of thousands of dollars.

Your responsibility in your personal finance journey is to identify every benefit you can collect and apply for it on time. Don’t assume the Social Security Administration (SSA) will guide you perfectly. Their website can be misleading, and staffers are often overworked, undertrained, and can give incomplete or incorrect advice.

3. Be Your Own Advocate and Shop Around

Because the system is so complex and the official advice can be flawed, you need to be proactive. If you believe you’re eligible for something and you’re told no, don’t take that as the final answer. Try a different office or call again to speak with a different person. Ask for a supervisor.

In one case, a woman named Marjorie was told she wasn't eligible for a specific benefit. I knew she was, so I told her to go back and have the staffer call me. The staffer screamed at me for half an hour, insisting I was wrong. I finally managed to say I'd be writing a column about our conversation, and after a brief hold, she returned with a completely different tone, apologized, and confirmed I was right. Marjorie got her benefits.

The lesson is to be persistent. You can even insist on filing for a benefit if they tell you you’re ineligible; they can’t refuse your application, and this protects your right to appeal.

4. Waiting to Collect Pays Off—Big Time

The single most powerful move you can make is to wait until age 70 to collect your retirement benefit. Let's go back to Sandy. If she delays claiming from age 62 to 70, her lifetime benefits increase by over $267,000. For the higher earner (3x Sandy), the gain is nearly half a million dollars.

Here’s why: if you claim before your full retirement age (which is 67 for most people now), your benefits are permanently reduced. If you wait, you earn "delayed retirement credits," which increase your benefit by about 8% for every year you wait past your full retirement age, up to age 70.

This means your monthly check at 70 will be roughly 76% higher than it would have been at 62, adjusted for inflation. The math behind these adjustments is outdated and heavily favors those who wait. It's one of the best and safest returns on investment available in all of personal finance.

5. Leave a Larger Legacy for Your Spouse

Delaying your own benefit doesn't just help you; it can dramatically help your surviving spouse. Survivor benefits are based on the amount the deceased spouse was receiving (or was entitled to receive).

If a higher-earning spouse claims their benefit early at 62 and passes away, their surviving partner will step up to that reduced benefit. But if the higher earner waits until 70 to collect their much larger benefit, the surviving spouse will receive that maximum amount for the rest of their life. This decision can translate into hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional lifetime income for the person you leave behind. A good financial advisor will always point this out as a key strategy.

6. You Can Suspend Your Benefits for a Do-Over

If you’ve already started collecting benefits and now regret taking them early, there’s a partial fix. Once you reach your full retirement age, you can ask the SSA to suspend your benefits. They will remain suspended until you ask to restart them, or until they automatically restart at age 70.

During the suspension period, you’ll earn the same 8% annual delayed retirement credits you would have gotten by waiting in the first place. When you turn your benefits back on, your monthly check will be permanently higher. This won't work for benefits your spouse or children are collecting on your record, but it's a great do-over strategy for your own retirement benefit.

7. The Earnings Test Isn't as Scary as It Sounds

Many people worry about working while collecting Social Security early because of the "earnings test." If you’re under your full retirement age, the SSA will withhold $1 for every $2 you earn above an annual limit. This feels like a massive tax and discourages people from working.

But for most, it's a temporary inconvenience, not a permanent loss. The SSA gives that money back later through something called the "adjustment of the reduction factor." When you reach your full retirement age, they recalculate your benefit and give you credit for the months you didn't receive a check due to the earnings test. The result is a permanently higher monthly payment that, over time, pays you back for what was withheld. So, don't let the earnings test be the sole reason you turn down work.

8. Some Can Still Collect "Free" Spousal Benefits

A law change in 2015 created a lucrative opportunity for people born before January 2, 1954. If you fall into this group, you can file a "restricted application" at your full retirement age to collect only spousal benefits while letting your own retirement benefit continue to grow until age 70. This allows you to get some income from Social Security for a few years while maximizing your own future check. Your spouse must already be collecting their benefit for this to work.

9. Sequence Your Widow(er) and Retirement Benefits Carefully

If you are a widow or widower, you are often eligible for two benefits: a retirement benefit based on your own work history and a survivor benefit based on your late spouse's. You cannot collect both at the same time, but you can often choose which one to take first.

The wrong advice is to file for both at once. The SSA will simply give you the higher of the two, and you could lose out on a fortune.

The smart strategy is to analyze which benefit will be larger in the long run. Often, the best move is to take the survivor benefit first while letting your own retirement benefit grow until age 70. At 70, you switch to your own maximized benefit if it's higher. This sequencing can add hundreds of thousands of dollars to your lifetime income.

10. You Can Increase Your Benefits by Working Longer

Your Social Security benefit is calculated based on your highest 35 years of inflation-adjusted earnings. If you have fewer than 35 years of work history, the SSA averages in zeros for the missing years, which pulls down your benefit amount.

By working longer, even part-time in retirement, you can replace those zero- or low-earning years with higher numbers. Each additional year of earnings can boost your "primary insurance amount," which is the foundation for your benefits. This happens automatically; the SSA re-calculates your benefit each year you have earnings. It’s a direct way to improve your retirement outlook.