COEUR d'ALENE - Men are living well into their 80s and women even longer. So people will be collecting Social Security a lot longer than people did when the program was being developed in the 1930s.

Back then somebody might collect benefits for a few years. Today the average retiree will collect for 22 years.

"That's the game-changer," said Jadyn Loedding, a financial adviser at Fulcrum Investments in Coeur d'Alene. "Social Security is what I call the forever money. And it's inflation indexed as well."

Social Security is the only source of income that most people are likely to have that's guaranteed for life, she said.

The problem is the trust funds that support Social Security are projected to dry up in 2033, she said.

"If nothing further is done on a policy level that's the expectation," Loedding said. "What's going to happen in about 25 years from now is kind of an unknown. It's going to depend on what happens in the next five to 10 years."

Once the funds are exhausted, the program would collect only enough money through payroll taxes to pay partial benefits to retirees. It's estimated the partial benefits would be about 75 percent.

Loedding spoke during an educational presentation on Social Security at the Lake City Center Tuesday.

She said single individuals with income of up to $25,000, which includes their Social Security benefits, would not pay taxes.

Income from $25,000 to $34,000 will be up to 50 percent taxable.

A couple, filing jointly, can have income of up to $32,000 before income taxes kick in, she said.

Income from $32,000 to $44,000 is up to 50 percent taxable.

For income of more than $34,000 for individuals or more than $44,000 for couples, up to 85 percent taxable.

Loedding said the amount of Social Security income someone receives depends on how much money they made while working.

"How much you made determines how much they taxed you on," she said.

Benefits will be based on a person's best 35 years of employment. If a person never worked or didn't work long enough to qualify for their own retirement benefits, they might still be eligible to collect spousal or survivor benefits from a spouse or ex-spouse.

A lot of people are no longer getting Social Security statements with benefit estimates, she said. The forms are going to fewer people to save the government money.

The information can still be obtained.

She recommended people go to the Social Security Administration's website at www.ssa.gov to use the "retirement estimator."

Loedding said many people are worried that the benefits will dry up so they decide to begin collecting early.

That's a mistake, she said.

The best age to begin collecting benefits is age 70, she said. For single males, though, the "sweet spot" is age 69, she said.

"If you're a married couple, there are a lot of strategies" for identifying the best time to file to get the maximum benefit, she said.

Overall it's good to delay collecting the benefit, she said. There's a "delayed-retirement credit" of 8 percent for every year from the normal retirement age up to age 70, for those born in 1943 or later.

"Eight percent (each year) is huge," she said, especially if somebody can hold out for the four years between age 66 and 70.

Full retirement age for those born from 1943 to 1954 is 66. For those born in 1960 or later it's 67.

Once somebody files for benefits they should start receiving the money in about 90 days, she said.