CHECKED MY ESTIMATED BENEFITS ON SOCIALSECURITY.GOV

To give me a better idea of where I stand retirement wise, I usually do an annual check of my estimated benefits and earnings record on socialsecurity.gov.  I was pleased to see that my estimated benefits recovered somewhat from the economic downturn back in 2008.  Due to poor earned income since that time, my estimated benefits had dropped from around $1,200 per month to a little over $600 per month.  With my new job and slightly increasing earned income, that has now gone up to $800 per month.  Still not great, but much better than it was.  Of course there are ways to boost this amount.  I can continue working and delay taking Social Security and my benefits will go up, but given the fact I've already had two heart attacks, I'm thinking the better choice would be to take earliest retirement at 62.  

Before suffering financial setbacks from my two heart attacks and stint surgeries, I was pretty well positioned for retirement.  Now it's a matter of playing catch up.  I don't expect to be able to regain all that I lost, but I do think it's possible to build a decent income stream that will help carry me through retirement.  While my current income is much lower than it was back in 2008, I have been able to manage pretty well.  So what it really boils down to is replacing my current income, which will be much easier, since my previous income was nearly double what I make now.