Social Security Online Benefits Calculator Questions

[iim7V7IM7]

Hi,

I just inputted my earnings record back to 1975 (including an estimate for 2024 of $168,600 and $176,100 for 2025). I entered my birth date and age in years and months that I plan on stopping working (age 65 and 1 month). It tells me that my benefit is:

Age at Retirement-----Today's Dollars-----Future (Inflated)Dollars
65 1 month---------------$3,307----------------------$3,469
67--------------------------$3,811----------------------$4,206
70--------------------------$4,758----------------------$5,696

The calculator is assuming that the age of retirement is when you begin taking your benefit. I plan on stopping working at 65 1 month and not taking my benefit until age 70. My latest statement suggests that my benefit at age 70 is $4,849/month. This statement again assumes that I work until I begin taking benefits and it uses the last year of income repeating until retirement. I know that it looks at your top 35 years and 2025 and 2026 will definitely swap out some years in the 1990s.

I understand future COLA adjustments are difficult to know, but is there a way to accurately estimate ones future benefit that takes into account stopping working long before one takes one's benefit?

[bynomial]

you can use ssa.gov calculator (after signing into your account) and use $0 for future earnings. Results are current dollars, you'd have to assume a discount rate for future dollars.

I will point out that it is the highest 35 indexed wages. Some of my biggest contributors were the 1990's because of indexing, even though I had a high salary towards the end.

[goblue100]

What I will tell you is that once you have passed the second bend point:
https://www.ssa.gov/oact/cola/bendpoints.html

Working additional years have only a minimal impact on your benefit.

[goblue100]

Age at Retirement-----Today's Dollars-----Future (Inflated)Dollars
65 1 month---------------$3,307----------------------$3,469
67--------------------------$3,811----------------------$4,206
70--------------------------$4,758----------------------$5,696

Additionally, I noticed your age 67 benefit is within a few dollars of the max benefit:
The maximum Social Security benefit depends on the age at which you retire and your earnings history. In 2024, the maximum monthly benefit is:
$2,710: If you retire at age 62
$3,822: If you retire at full retirement age (FRA), which is between 66 and 67
$4,873: If you retire at age 70

So more years of earnings won't increase your benefit more than a few dollars.

[iim7V7IM7]

Thanks for the input.

I just used the calculator as suggested and compared $0 future earnings to using $176,100 for future years and the difference is small

Age--------$0 in Future------$176,100 in Future
67------------$3,872-----------------$3,914
70------------$4,801-----------------$4,898

So my benefit will likely fall in between the two estimates with 1-2 years of additional earnings displacing earlier years in the top 35 years.

[goblue100]

So my benefit will likely fall in between the two estimates with 1-2 years of additional earnings displacing earlier years in the top 35 years.

True. An earlier poster mentioned that earnings are indexed. What that means is years of older earnings get an adjustment to account for inflation.
https://www.ssa.gov/oact/cola/awifactors.html

https://www.ssa.gov/cgi-bin/awiFactors.cgi

So for instance, if you made $6,000 in 1975 you would multiply it by the index factor of 7.7189685 or $46,313,81. Or if you made something like $33,500 in 1980 it is the same as your current day $176,000. Makes the impact of replacing old earning years with new ones less then one might think.

Edit. Read the first link I posted and it turns out your earning are indexed when you turn 60. After that everything is taken at face value. Learned something today.

Wage indexing depends on the year in which a person is first eligible to receive benefits. For retirement, eligibility is at age 62. So if a person reaches age 62 in 2025, then 2025 is the person's year of eligibility.

An individual's earnings are always indexed to the average wage level two years prior to the year of first eligibility. Thus, for a person retiring at age 62 in 2025, the person's earnings would be indexed to the average wage index for 2023 (66,621.80). Earnings in a year before 2023 would be multiplied by the ratio of 66,621.80 to the average wage index for that year; earnings in 2023 or later would be taken at face value.