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From the table, if I read it correctly, a worker retiring in 2016 at age 70, having had the maximum wages since age 22, would receive a monthly benefit of $3,576.
Note that Social Security counts only the highest 35 years of income (as adjusted for inflation), so in that case the worker has worked 48 years (age 22 to age 70) but hasn't really gained anything from the 13 years of work beyond the 35 years.
Also of note is that the gain in retirement benefit is not proportional to the higher wage, because low wage earners receive a higher percentage of their wage in benefits than high wage earners.
From the table, if I read it correctly, a worker retiring in 2016 at age 70, having had the maximum wages since age 22, would receive a monthly benefit of $3,576.
Note that Social Security counts only the highest 35 years of income (as adjusted for inflation), so in that case the worker has worked 48 years (age 22 to age 70) but hasn't really gained anything from the 13 years of work beyond the 35 years.
Also of note is that the gain in retirement benefit is not proportional to the higher wage, because low wage earners receive a higher percentage of their wage in benefits than high wage earners.
Good find with that table, Josie13.
While far from my expertise, if one did not earn AIME (as in pay in the max) in the early years ($26,460 yearly in 1967), they certainly needed those last years at AIME ($113,172 yearly in 2016) to receive the maximum.
Early on in my working life I did not make AIME. It was only later in my working career that I did.
so the longer you defer benefits, the more you receive?
I'm sorry, but how do people close to retirement age (or not!) not know this?! Study the website BEFORE you decide to collect or you could *********rself out of a lot of money.
While far from my expertise, if one did not earn AIME (as in pay in the max) in the early years ($26,460 yearly in 1967), they certainly needed those last years at AIME ($113,172 yearly in 2016) to receive the maximum.
Early on in my working life I did not make AIME. It was only later in my working career that I did.
Of course, yours is a fairly normal pattern. I was just describing what I read from the table.
I'm sorry, but how do people close to retirement age (or not!) not know this?! Study the website BEFORE you decide to collect or you could *********rself out of a lot of money.
Your advice to study up on Social Security before filing to collect retirement benefits is certainly excellent, but the nasty remark is not justified. We don't know the age of the original poster. Lots of people don't look into the details of SS when they are young; perhaps even the majority of people do not. And the original poster, via his question here, has begun the process of educating himself. Good for him for taking that step in the right direction.
so the longer you defer benefits, the more you receive?
Yes, up to age 70. Any further deferral beyond age 70 is just leaving money on the table. It is sort of a gamble; if we are convinced we won't live very long, taking SS early is the way to go, but if we wish to provide best for life into our 80's and 90's, waiting until age 70 may be the ticket. A person who is waiting until age 70 to file but dies at 69 receives nothing. A person who files at 62 (the earliest allowed age) but lives until 90 has received less than he could have received by waiting.
Not everybody has enough to live on, or is able to keep working long enough, in order to wait for age 70. Each year, actually each month, that we wait beyond age 62 results in a slightly higher benefit.
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