Do Social Security retirement benefits at 62 only count your last 5 years of earnings?

Your buddy is completely wrong. Social Security doesn't just use your last 5 years - they use your highest 35 years of earnings (adjusted for inflation) to calculate your retirement benefits. This is called your AIME (Average Indexed Monthly Earnings). If you've worked less than 35 years total, they'll still use 35 years in the calculation, but the missing years will count as zeros, which brings down your average. Since you've worked part-time recently, these lower-earning years probably won't be among your highest 35, unless you had some years with no earnings that these part-time years would replace.

Your friend is misinformed. Social Security retirement benefits are based on your highest 35 years of earnings, not just the last 5 years. They adjust all your past earnings for inflation (called "indexing") before calculating your average. I went through this last year when I turned 62. I was also working part-time for the last few years before retirement, but it didn't hurt my benefit amount much because my earlier full-time years counted more. The best thing you can do is create a my Social Security account at ssa.gov and check your earnings record to make sure everything is correct. Your benefit estimate there will be pretty accurate.

WRONG information from your buddy! The SSA uses 35 yrs not 5!! My brother in law told me the same garbage last year and I freaked out for nothing. When I finally got through to someone at Social Security they explained the whole 35 year thing to me. They index your earnings which is some kinda calculation that adjusts for inflation or something.

Thanks for all the responses! I feel so much better now. I made an account on ssa.gov like someone suggested, and you're all right - it shows my entire work history going back to my first job, not just the last 5 years. Seems like my buddy at work has been spreading bad information. One more question: the estimate on the SSA site shows what I'd get at 62, my full retirement age (which is 67), and at 70. Is this estimate taking into account my current part-time status, or is it assuming I'll keep working full-time until I retire?

I had a similar scare when my neighbor told me they only count the last 10 years! I was so worried because I had been on disability for 7 years before switching back to retirement benefits. Spent weeks trying to get through to SSA on the phone with no luck - always disconnected or on hold forever. Finally found this service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that got me connected to an actual person at SSA in about 20 minutes. They have a video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/Z-BRbJw3puU The agent confirmed it's definitely the highest 35 years they use, not the last 5 or 10 years. Such a relief!

@WorriedAboutOverpayment Yes, it honestly did work for me. I was skeptical at first but I was desperate after trying for so long to get through. Got connected to a real person who could actually help with my question about the earnings calculation.

There's a simple way to check this for yourself. Create a my Social Security account at ssa.gov if you haven't already, and look at your earnings record. You'll see they track your ENTIRE working history - every year you've paid FICA taxes. Then look at your benefit estimate. That calculation is using your highest 35 years, not your last 5. I'm actually dealing with a similar situation. I had to reduce my hours to care for my mom, and I was worried about how it would affect my benefit. But when I checked my record, I could see that I already had 40+ years of earnings, so these lower-earning years won't matter much in the calculation.

Everybody here is right about the 35 years, but nobody mentioned that Social Security does look at a 5-year period for disability benefits (SSDI), not retirement. For SSDI, you generally need to have worked 5 out of the last 10 years to qualify. Maybe that's where your friend got confused?

Wow, I learned so much from this thread! Thank you all for clearing this up. I'm going to tell my buddy at work that he's completely wrong about the 5-year thing before he scares anyone else. I checked my earnings record carefully, and all 42 years of my work history are there. My recent part-time earnings definitely won't be in my highest 35 years, so my benefits won't be affected like I feared. I'm still planning to claim at 62 next March because honestly, I'm ready to be done working. My mortgage will be paid off by then, and I have some savings. Even with the reduction for claiming early, I think I'll be okay.