Confused with Social Security website calculation.

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Gort
Posts: 963
Joined: Sat Mar 17, 2007 5:07 pm
Location: Texas

Confused with Social Security website calculation.

Post by Gort »

Friends,
I used the Social Security website to determine what my benefits would be at age 62, 66, and 70. (My age is 61). I understand why the benefits increase with age deferral but are the benefit numbers given for the three different ages assuming I continue to work until those ages?
Thanks in advance for your responses and help to my question.
Gort
Spirit Rider
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Joined: Fri Mar 02, 2007 1:39 pm

Re: Confused with Social Security website calculation.

Post by Spirit Rider »

Yes they assume you continue working at your current income. If it is the retirement estimator, you can add additional estimates while setting your future salary (even to $0). If you want more control to set both the actual date you stop working and year you claim benefits, you can download the AnyPIA application. Warning, with flexibility come complexity. It is not too bad, but is thinly documented and can be a little confusing.
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Gort
Posts: 963
Joined: Sat Mar 17, 2007 5:07 pm
Location: Texas

Re: Confused with Social Security website calculation.

Post by Gort »

Spirit Rider wrote:Yes they assume you continue working at your current income. If it is the retirement estimator, you can add additional estimates while setting your future salary (even to $0). If you want more control to set both the actual date you stop working and year you claim benefits, you can download the AnyPIA application. Warning, with flexibility come complexity. It is not too bad, but is thinly documented and can be a little confusing.
Spirit Rider, thanks for the info. I wish the SSA benefits website was a little bit easier to navigate through but I eventually found what I needed.
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Christine_NM
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Location: New Mexico

Re: Confused with Social Security website calculation.

Post by Christine_NM »

Gort -

I used AnyPIA ten years ago. I had to enter my earnings history, but that allowed me to enter zero earnings from age 62-70. The benefits calculated were exactly right for the known case, age 62, and somewhat lower than shown on the usual PEBES statement or online. Not much, less than $200/month lower for age 70 iirc. But how it plays out depends on your particular earnings record.

Give AnyPIA a try. In my version there were a lot of options for different rules sets, I tried them all but I could not see that it mattered and ended up using whatever the default was. It is not a whiz-bang program but if you ever ran applications the old-fashioned way, c. 1986, you will not have much trouble.

ETA - If I can do it, you can. Challenge issued. :happy
16% cash 49% stock 35% bond. Retired, w/d rate 2.5%
ikowik
Posts: 392
Joined: Tue Dec 23, 2014 5:52 pm

Re: Confused with Social Security website calculation.

Post by ikowik »

The AnyPIA calculator can be downloaded from Social Security website:

http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/anypia/anypia.html

Unfortunately it does not work on OSX Lion or newer platforms.
So it would be usable only if you have a Windows computer or an older OSX.
The Wizard
Posts: 13356
Joined: Tue Mar 23, 2010 1:45 pm
Location: Reading, MA

Re: Confused with Social Security website calculation.

Post by The Wizard »

Spirit Rider's answer may be correct for some people, but not others.
Your highest 35 years of inflation indexed earnings are what count.
Some people have 35+ years of income exceeding the SS annual limit, so they get max benefit at 70 even if they quit working in early 60s...
Attempted new signature...
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