Living off Social Security alone will likely only get more challenging over time. You'll probably get annual cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) in most years, but these often don't keep pace with inflation. So, every year your checks buy a little less.

Receiving Social Security is vitally important for American retirees. According to the Social Security Administration, a whopping half of the population aged 65 or older or that have reached

Social Security was once seen as one part of a "three-legged stool" of retirement funding, the other two sources being personal savings and a pension income. But if you're like most Americans today, you don't get a pension,