These Are the 3 Most Important Factors for Getting More Social Security

There are millions of Americans today who collect a monthly benefit from Social Security. And for many of them, that benefit is their primary or only source of retirement income.

If you don’t have much in the way of savings, you may be eager to score the largest monthly Social Security check possible. And even if you do have savings, there’s unfortunately a risk of that money running out on you eventually.

Social Security, on the other hand, is set up to pay your monthly benefits for life. So it’s not a bad thing to score as large a benefit as possible.

But if your goal is to get more out of Social Security, then it’s important to know how benefits are calculated. Here are the three most important factors for getting a more generous monthly payday.

1. The number of years you work

The formula used to calculate your Social Security benefits takes your 35 highest-paid years of earnings into account. For this reason, it’s a good idea to make sure you have 35 years of work on record before signing up for benefits.

If you’re missing a year or two, you’ll have a $0 factored into your benefits calculation. The result? Less money for you.

So if you’re gearing up to claim benefits, take a trip down memory lane and count the number of years during which you brought home a paycheck. If you’re a year or two shy of 35, you may want to push yourself to stay in the workforce a little bit longer.

2. The amount of money you earn

As just mentioned, Social Security will only use your 35 top earning years to calculate your monthly benefits. But that’s something you can use to your advantage.

Say you have a 40-year work history, but it wasn’t until the final third of your career that your earnings really took off. What you could do is work a few extra years later in life to replace lower wages in your Social Security benefits calculation with higher earnings.

Now that said, when Social Security calculates retirement benefits, it does adjust earlier wages for inflation. But still, if you’re in your 60s earning the highest paycheck of your life, sticking with your job a few more years could put a lot more Social Security in your pocket come retirement.

3. Your filing age

The final factor that determines how much Social Security you get each month is your filing age. You can sign up for benefits as early as age 62. But if you want your monthly benefits without a reduction, you’ll need to wait until full retirement age (FRA) to file.

If you were born in 1960 or later, FRA is 67. But you’ll also get credit for delaying your claim beyond FRA.

For each year you hold off, up until you turn 70, your benefits get an 8% boost. And that boost is a permanent one. So if you want more Social Security, you may want to try to delay your filing until your 70th birthday.

Of course, to pull that off, you may need to work a bit longer. But if you’ve reached your peak earnings, that’s a good thing. The combination of a delayed Social Security claim and a higher paycheck could set you up to collect a lot more money once you sign up to get benefits.

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