THE PROMISE OF<br >SOCIAL SECURITY<br >Social Security. These two words may seem synonymous with<br >the distant future. But with today turning into tomorrow more<br >quickly than most of us are willing to believe， I strongly advise<br >you to start learning as much about these two words as soon as<br >you possibly can， no matter how old you are.<br > Why? For several reasons. The first is the most important: to<br >protect yourself. Do you really believe that when you retire or<br >become disabled or lose a loved one， some eager representative<br >from the federal government will be going out of his way to<br > remind you that you are eligible for this or that set of benefits?<br > In the final analysis， you and you alone are responsible for<br > your money. I m talking about not only your salary or the<br > income from your investments but also the Social Security<br > benefits--whether retirement， disability， survivors， or depen-<br > dents-to which you are entitled in the future.<br > These days， some 30 million Americans receive Social Secu-<br >rity checks， averaging $943 a month for 2003 if they are age<br >62 and $1，158 a month if they are age 65. And this figure<br ><br >