Millions of Americans rely solely on Social Security when it’s time for them to retire. This means they should make sure they get as much as they can.
Social Security was designed to only cover a portion of a person’s previously salary once they retire.
This means there should be other types of accounts for retirement, but that simply is not always the case.
It’s more common that Social Security recipients do not have another source of income.
This means when it’s time to retire you should have tried to do all you could to make the payment as big as possible.
Social Security: Interesting spousal benefit rules
There are three ways to help be sure you boost your Social Security benefits in the long run
Wait until you’re beyond full retirement age to retire
You can retire as early as age 62, but you risk seeing as much as 30% less in every payment for the remainder of your life.
Your full retirement age is between 66 and 67 depending on the year you were born.
If you can manage to wait until age 70, you’ll see an increase of 8% for each year you wait.
That means you’ll see a 24% higher monthly payment every month for the rest of your life.
Social Security: Is retiring at 62 a good idea?
Work more during your working years
Your payment each month at your full retirement age is based on your 35 highest earning working years.
This means if you pick up a side job with your full time job, that will boost your yearly income for that year.
The higher your income the higher your benefits.
This also means if you have less than 35 working years, you’ll see values of $0 factored into your benefit, bringing it down.
Social Security: Is eliminating income tax helpful?
Pay attention to detail in your earnings statement
Every year the Social Security Administration will release an earnings statement detailing your wages for the year.
You’ll need to be sure the details reported are correct.
If there are incorrect amounts for earnings, it could negatively impact what you get in the future.
This means you want to be sure you’re getting exactly what you’re owed.
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