Are Social Security's highest earning years calculated up to FRA or another specific age?

they keep track of earnings up til whatever age u retire not just til FRA. even income after u start taking benefits can replace lower years

Social Security uses your highest 35 years of earnings regardless of when they occur. There's no cutoff at FRA or any other age. If you work past your FRA (Full Retirement Age), those earnings can replace lower-earning years in your calculation. This continues even if you're already collecting benefits. So your career change at 58 might eventually impact your benefit IF: 1. You've already worked 35+ years 2. Your new lower salary would replace what would have been higher-earning years However, if you have fewer than 35 years of earnings, adding more working years (even at lower pay) is always beneficial since it replaces $0 years in the calculation.

My brother thought the same thing and took a lower paying job at 60. His benefit ended up being almost $400 less per month than what the SSA estimator had predicted! Something to think about...

This is a common misunderstanding about Social Security calculations. To be precise, SSA calculates your Average Indexed Monthly Earnings (AIME) based on your highest 35 years of earnings after indexing for inflation. These years can occur at ANY point in your working life - before or after FRA. Importantly, if you're considering that career change at 58, understand that earnings later in your career can be particularly valuable because: 1. They're in current dollars (not indexed) 2. They can replace very early career years that might be quite low 3. They might replace years with $0 earnings if you don't have a full 35 years By the way, you can create a my Social Security account at ssa.gov to see exactly which years are currently counting in your calculation.

THE WHOLE SYSTEM IS RIGGED!!! I worked 42 years and my benefit is PATHETIC compared to what I paid in. They DON'T even count all my highest years because some were self-employment and they claim I didn't file right or something. And good luck talking to ANYONE at SSA to fix it - impossible to reach them!!

I was also confused about this when planning my retirement. My neighbor who used to work for SSA told me they look at all your years right up until you start collecting. I decided to work part-time instead of fully retiring and those earnings are still counting toward my record even though I'm already collecting my retirement benefits.

Thank you all so much for the helpful information! I feel much better about my decision now. I'll definitely be looking at my my Social Security account to see exactly where things stand. One last question - if I do take this lower-paying job but then work a few years longer than originally planned (maybe to 68 instead of 66), would that potentially offset the lower earnings?

my uncle switched to part time at 63 and it didnt hurt his SS much he said. he was happier which is worth more than $$$ anyway.

I got confused about SSI vs SSDI vs retirement benefits when I was researching this. They all have different rules about working! Make sure you're looking at the retirement benefit rules which is what we're talking about here.