Shelley ESocial Security payments can make up a decent portion of your retirement income. To ensure you get the maximum benefits, follow these tips.
Work 35 Years
To come up with your benefits, the Social Security Administration will look at your earnings history. Specifically, they will select the 35 years where you made the most money. If your work history is under 35 years, some zeros will be used in your benefit calculation. And you don’t need to be a math whiz to know that zeros will negatively impact that calculation, which will result in a smaller monthly payout.
If you’re right around 35 years and are nearing retirement, this bit of info may give you that extra nudge you need to keep working.
Don’t File for Payments Before Your Full Retirement Age
To get the maximum payments, you’ll need to wait until you hit your full retirement age. For most workers, that’s age 66 or 67.
If you try to collect payments before you reach your full retirement age, you will receive less money per month.
Be as Patient as Possible
The longer you wait to collect Social Security retirement benefits, the more money you’ll receive. For every year you wait after your full retirement age, you can enjoy an eight percent increase in benefits.
What age should you aim for? 70 years old, as that’s how long you can delay your payments and continue to receive eight percent benefit increases each year. After 70, incentives to delay filing disappear.
Make More Money
As mentioned, your 35 best years of earning are used to calculate your Social Security benefits. As such, you’ll want to ensure your income is as high as possible so you can increase your monthly payout once you decide to start collecting benefits.
Get Spousal Benefits
If you didn’t work, you may want to claim spousal benefits. You can get benefits based on up to 50 percent of your spouse’s work record.
The same holds true for an ex-spouse if you were married to them for at least ten years.
You can do this by either working on the side or asking for a raise at your current job. If you’ve been working at the same job for many years, asking your boss for a bump in pay could be a lot easier than you think.
Keep in mind that there is a maximum amount of earnings used in your retirement payment calculation. At the time of this writing, that amount is $137,700. So, if you already make more than that, there’s no need to work on the side or ask for a raise.
Get Family Benefits
Having children under 19 that are dependents can boost your Social Security payments. There are annual limits, but you could get a pay bump of up to half of your full retirement benefit thanks to your dependents.
Make a My Social Security Account
This online account can help you better understand your Social Security benefits. It’s a must if you want to ensure your earnings history is accurate, plus it lets you track the status of your Social Security application while giving you estimates of future benefits.
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