Social Security benefits starting at 63 - will working under earnings limit improve my 35-year calculation?

Yes, those part-time earnings absolutely can help your benefit amount! SSA uses your highest 35 years of earnings (indexed for inflation) to calculate your benefit. If you have zeros in your 35-year calculation, then any new earnings that replace those zeros will increase your Primary Insurance Amount (PIA). The recalculation happens automatically every year after the previous year's earnings are posted to your record (usually by September of the following year). So if you work in 2025, you might see a small increase in your benefit by late 2026. After FRA, it works the same way for the recalculation - plus as you noted, the earnings limit disappears completely so you can earn any amount without penalties.

my neighbor did this!!!! he took ss at 62 but kept working at the grocery store part time & his checks went up like $30-40 each time they did the recalculation thing. not huge but adds up!!!

Just be careful with that earnings limit! It's not worth going over by even a dollar because SSA will take back $1 for every $2 you earn above the limit. I learned this the hard way last year and got a surprise letter saying I owed them $3,800 because I earned $7,600 over the limit. They started taking it out of my monthly checks until it was paid back. KEEP TRACK OF YOUR EARNINGS CAREFULLY!

You're asking exactly the right questions! I dealt with this same situation 4 years ago. Yes, working part-time below the earnings limit will help your benefit calculation IF those earnings replace a zero or very low earning year in your 35-year calculation. But here's what many people don't realize - the impact tends to be relatively small. In my case, replacing a zero year with about $18k in earnings only increased my monthly benefit by about $28. Not life-changing, but still nice to have. After you reach FRA, any additional earnings can still improve your benefit through the same recalculation process. The difference is you can earn unlimited amounts without penalty. The SSA automatically recalculates your benefit every year when new earnings are posted. If you want to see the potential impact, create a my Social Security account online if you haven't already. You can see your earnings history and get a better idea of which years might be replaced.

wait can someone explain this whole 35 year thing?? i thought they just use your last 10 years of work? or is that for disability?

Just wanted to add that while working can certainly help your benefit calculation, the increase is typically modest when you're replacing zero years with part-time work. The real benefit of working part-time while collecting Social Security early is the additional income without triggering the earnings limit. On a personal note - I tried for WEEKS to get through to someone at SSA last year when I had questions about my own recalculation. The phone lines were impossible. I finally used a service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) which got me connected to an agent in about 20 minutes instead of spending days redialing. They have a video showing how it works at https://youtu.be/Z-BRbJw3puU. Made a huge difference when I needed specific answers about my situation.

THE SSA DELIBERATELY MAKES THIS CONFUSING!!!!! They don't want people to understand how the system works because then more people would maximize their benefits!!!! They've been doing this for decades, making the calculations unnecessarily complex so regular people can't figure out the best strategies!!!!

One more thing worth mentioning - if you're married or divorced after a long marriage, make sure you're looking at spousal benefit options too. Sometimes that can provide a higher benefit amount depending on your spouse's earnings record. The calculations get more complex, but it's definitely worth exploring all your options.