Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > Retirement
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Reply Start New Thread
 
Old 03-03-2016, 02:27 PM
 
Location: SoCal
20,160 posts, read 12,652,476 times
Reputation: 16993

Advertisements

SSA has posted my 2015 earnings. I have 36 years total, good thing I won't have to count the year I only earned $20. But since I'm retiring, I'm sure my max amount at 70 will be slightly reduced. But it's not something I worry too much.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 03-04-2016, 02:49 AM
 
Location: Williamsburg VA
764 posts, read 1,033,366 times
Reputation: 1215
Quote:
Originally Posted by Perryinva View Post
Not sure what you mean. Do you only have 10 years in the system and are at MAX, so you are asking if they are already calculating the next 25 years as MAX? No, it doesn't go out that far correctly. They assume that you income STAYS at that level, and they increase the MAX number over the next 25 years.
Once my 2015 earnings post I will have 36 years of earnings, although my first three years don't count as full years (according to the SSA calculator they don't qualify for 4 quarters). I'm 51 now and will turn 52 in a few months. I maxed the SSA earnings the last two years so I expect to continue maxing until I quit/retire. If I work until FRA (67) that will add another 16 years at max earnings.

So from what I understand now, my current estimated benefits are not based on my current 35 year earnings record. Instead, they are based on me earning the max for those 16 additional years, replacing lower earning years.

So if I quit/retire before FRA or my earnings drop below max, I will see a drop in my projected benefits.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-04-2016, 06:50 AM
 
Location: RVA
2,766 posts, read 2,065,867 times
Reputation: 6633
Yes, you are correct about how it calculates, and if you stopped working now, you would see a drop every year in your FRA ESTIMATE for the first few years, then it would level out. Estimates are in todays dollars, so they increase each years to account for inflation, so the farther out you are, the less accurate the estimate is even if you have 35 years maxed out. 35 years maxed out ending the year before you retire gives you a larger benefit than 35 years maxed out 15 years before you retire, because the increases in Max income taxed, outweigh the COL muliplier used to calculate the average time adjusted income. So the MAX earned taxed in the 80s might have been 35k, and time adjusted raises that to 85k in todays dollars, but the max earn today is 118500, so it is worth more in the lifetime earnings calculation than the 85k year.

Anywhere near 85% of max earnings is all about the same, btw, it's not linear at all. Earning the max or 85% of it makes less than a 5% difference in final benefit, no where near 15%. Ive done the manual lifetime earning calcs for the fun of it (engineers find that fun) to see what my difference would be if I maxed earning to FRA, vs at 62, vs stopping right now (58, with 35 maxed years) and the difference was very very small, assuming a 1.5% increase in Max taxed. Lets face it, if you've near maxed for 35 or 40 years, a 5% difference in your SS is not a deal breaker or main financial decision maker. Its background noise.

Last edited by Perryinva; 03-04-2016 at 07:01 AM..
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-04-2016, 11:49 AM
 
Location: Williamsburg VA
764 posts, read 1,033,366 times
Reputation: 1215
My 2015 earning finally posted. My FR estimate went up $9 from my previous post.

May 2014:
FRA (67) - $2,501
age 70 - $3,177
age 62 - $1,673

March 2015:
FRA (67) - $2,544
age 70 - $3,233
age 62 - $1,700

April 2016:
FRA (67) - $2,618
age 70 - $3,324
age 62 - $1,752

All three of these years were at max earnings.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-04-2016, 12:10 PM
 
Location: RVA
2,766 posts, read 2,065,867 times
Reputation: 6633
Where is the $9? I see a $74/mo increase in your FRA monthly. Heck, that's over $1300 a year increase over the 2 year period. It may only be 5%, but in terms of actual dollars, rather appreciable. Better than most peoples actual raises.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-04-2016, 12:22 PM
 
Location: Williamsburg VA
764 posts, read 1,033,366 times
Reputation: 1215
Look back at post #40. In February my FRA estimate was $2,609
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 05-12-2016, 09:11 AM
 
1 posts, read 1,752 times
Reputation: 10
I just checked mine and my 2015 earnings are still not posted yet. I was informed when I applied for unployment benefits due to layoff that I had no earnings for 2015? What actions must be taken inorder for my earnings to show on my Social Security Statements.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 05-12-2016, 01:46 PM
 
Location: OH>IL>CO>CT
7,467 posts, read 13,457,378 times
Reputation: 11758
According to SSA, it is to soon to worry about 2015. See https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10081.pdf where ii says:
"If the earnings missing from your Social Security
record are for the current year or last year, you
do not need to worry. Because these earnings are
recent, we may not have recorded them yet. They
should appear on a later
Statement".

As long as you have good records of wages and withholdings, (W-2's, Fed tax return, pay stubs, etc) you can file a claim later if necessary.

Also read post #4 in this thread at //www.city-data.com/forum/38331659-post4.html
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 06-17-2016, 06:04 PM
 
27,204 posts, read 46,522,862 times
Reputation: 15656
Maybe someone can help with the answer on the following. When you add up the 1099's and W2 and deduct as the IRS told me the amount from form SE, than we still have a small difference to what is shown on the earnings report.

Does anyone know what we are overlooking?

We did find an article that says something about 7.65% that doesn't need to be reported but we also saw some items are looked at differently like income from rentals, etc. Maybe that is the answer but we would like to understand it better.

For 2015 we had a small amount lower and for 2014 we came to an amount that should have been higher on the earnings report.

Thanks for anyone's time to read my post and answering ...if possible.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 06-17-2016, 09:31 PM
 
Location: Cape Elizabeth
426 posts, read 503,519 times
Reputation: 760
When you are self employed, on the Schedule C you determine if you have a profit or loss. If you have a profit,then you fill out the Schedule SE to see how much SS TAX you have to pay. On that form they allow you to deduct your share of the fica tax or 7.65%. The result is your SS earnings for the year.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:

Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > Retirement
Similar Threads

All times are GMT -6.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top