This month Social Security introduces a new "Retirement Estimator" at www.socialsecurity.gov. Getting a personalized online estimate of your future retirement benefits is now easier than ever before.

The online Retirement Estimator is a convenient, secure and quick financial planning tool that lets workers calculate how much they might expect to receive in Social Security benefits when they retire. The attractive new feature of this calculator is that it eliminates the need to manually key in years of earnings information. It's so easy to use.

Visit www.socialsecurity.gov/estimator. To get an estimate, you'll need to enter your first and last name, date of birth, Social Security number, mother's maiden name and place of birth. If the information matches our records, then you can enter an expected retirement age and future wages. The Estimator combines this information with the information that we have on record, including your yearly earnings, to provide a quick and reliable online benefit estimate.

To protect your privacy, only the final retirement estimates are given to you online. The Retirement Estimator does not show your earnings record information on which the final benefit estimate was calculated. And it does not reveal any personal information, such as your address, earnings or other information, that could lead to identity theft.

The Estimator also will let you create "what if" scenarios. You can, for example, change "stop work" dates or expected future earnings to create and compare different retirement options.

When you visit our website at www.socialsecurity.gov to see the new Retirement Estimator, take a few minutes to become familiar with our many other online services – including applying online for Social Security retirement and disability benefits.

Ginny Jordan is a Public Affairs Specialist for the Social Security Administration. Her weekly column on all things Social Security appears in the Sunday Edition of the Sun-Sentinel.

Ginny has agreed to let us reprint her articles here for your convenience.

Thank you Ginny!