Specialized Social Security Benefit Calculator

[Dire Wolf]

One thing to be aware of is how the bend points work into this. Once your AIME (inflation adjusted average monthly income across 35 years of working) is above a certain point, you are seeing very little increase for every additional dollar you put in.

I pulled my actual earnings a while ago and calculated how much each year of work added. It was not much. For the next few years, in my early 50s, it went up by $300-400 a YEAR at age 62. That’s because I’m replacing some really low income years from high school and college. Then it starts going up by only $84/year for a bit. At 60, I’d have capped out, with 35 years of maxed out contributions.

[Perryinva]

Once you hit 62, NONE of your earned years are increased by an inflation multiplier. Your PIA (primary insurance amount, which is your amount at FRA) is adjusted for the years COLA, and for replacement of lower with higher. Making an extra 60k a year for 2 years when the rest of your working years is NO WHERE near worth $100/mo increase. Replacing zeros or near zeros with $120k will help the most, but even then, I doubt $100/mo if the others are all around 60k

[NewbieHere]

One thing I notice recently is my SS at 70 goes up higher than the amount was shown last year at 70 and the 1.6% COLA. Why is that?

[Perryinva]

The 1.6% COLA is applied to your PIA, and all subsequent DRC post FRA amounts are based on an increase of .00667% of the PIA per month. If you are not yet 61, then the PIA increase is still based on the working salary assumptions for subsequent years plus COLA, plus the average salary comparison increase per year. If you stop earning enough to replace any of your 35 highest adjusted years and are 62, then the only increases from then on are COLA adjustments to your PIA.

[Perryinva]

That should have been .667%/month or multiply by .00667. My bad. So if your PIA is $2500/month, then simply add $16.67 per month for every month you delay.