hey everyone just a few days ago the
Social Security Administration announced
that starting today March 17th they
would no longer have their field offices
open for you to be able to go in and
conduct your business no that's whether
you're filing a claim taking care of a
post claim issue whatever it is now you
have to do that either on the phone or
online and there's only a limited number
of things you can do online if you've
been on there before highly recommend
you setting up an online account if you
haven't already but there's just a
limited number of things you can't do
everything there right so that leaves
you with the phones now here's the issue
with the phone lines and this is from my
experience the Social Security
ministration says that they do not
publish their phone numbers to their
local offices but I don't find that to
be the case in fact I've called the
local offices several times in different
areas now why is that important
well if you call them main number the
1-800 number you're probably gonna be
waiting for 30 to 45 minutes and it says
on their website that their average wait
time is 25 minutes I haven't found that
to be the case there are certain times
you can call where the wait time is
lower but I just simply have it found 25
minute wait call to have ever happened
when I've called maybe it does but where
I have been able to get through
relatively quickly is by calling the
local offices now these offices could be
difficult to locate the number for I
mean it they they don't publish this
number especially in the larger cities
if you go to the Social Security
ministration find an office page you go
there and you type in you know Dallas
Texas you're gonna see the 1-800 number
listed there if you go here in my
hometown of Texarkana they actually list
a separate phone number but right now
some of these offices are also listing
the number to the local office even in
markets like Dallas in some of the
larger areas so if you want to get
through without a long wait period you
can probably call your local office and
get faster service now there's no one
saying that you have to call the office
in your hometown you could call another
office and
you know maybe find one that has a
shorter wait time or doesn't serve near
the geographic area if you can get a
shorter wait time by all means call them
they're gonna use the same system to
access your information so it doesn't
really matter where you live and it
doesn't really matter where that office
is located so I hope this helps you save
some time in the next few weeks ahead as
they are shut down for in-person
services and frankly guys I think we
probably ought to get used to this type
of service anyway it's coming whether we
like it or not all these local field
offices if we're just not going to be
able to continue to go in for service
into the years and years in the future
it's just not going to happen it's too
expensive and they can do most of the
stuff online and buy the phone anyway
they can save a lot of money by shutting
those down you may have noticed I'm in a
new recording space now this isn't the
recording space that I'm gonna go to for
all of my regular videos but there is
something you should know about big
picture retirement is a podcast that I
started back in 2017 along with my
co-host an elder law attorney John Ross
we talk about all the other areas of
retirement planning where this channel
is specifically about Social Security on
the other channel we talk about estate
planning we talk about taxation we talk
about being strategic with your
retirement income all of that stuff is
there and we've decided to relaunch that
podcast except we're going to do it as a
youtube channel now it's still going to
be available as a podcast for those of
you who have enjoyed listening that but
it's going to primarily become a YouTube
channel now we haven't even put any
videos out there yet
and we already have about 1,200
subscribers people that have just raised
their hands and said hey I won't in as
soon as you get this released let me
know and so you can do that too
you can go to the link down in the
description and subscribe right there
and click the notifications well if you
see one some people have said they don't
see it popping up I'm not sure why but
if you see it pop in there you can go
ahead and click that notifications bell
that way as soon as we release a new
video you're gonna find out and it's
gonna be recorded right here in this
space so you'll already know what it
looks like you're a little bit ahead of
that alright guys well best of luck in
the days ahead as you're trying to
get help with your social security
issues if you have any questions don't
hesitate to post them down in the
comments below thanks as always for
watching have a great day