Will Social Security benefit amount change if I retire early but delay claiming until FRA?
I'm planning to stop working full-time at 60 next year but won't claim Social Security until I reach my full retirement age at 67. I'm confused about how this gap will affect my benefit amount. From what I understand, SS is based on my highest 35 years of earnings, right? So if I quit at 60 or just work part-time making less than my current salary, my SS benefit won't increase unless that part-time income exceeds one of my top 35 earning years. Is this correct? When I use the calculator on the SSA website, should I enter zero for future earnings from age 60-67 to get an accurate benefit estimate? Or would that give me a lower amount than I'd actually receive? I'm trying to plan my retirement budget carefully and all this SS stuff is making my head spin. I've been researching Medicare options too and feeling overwhelmed with all the different rules and timelines. Just want to make sure I'm thinking about this the right way!
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Kayla Morgan
You're mostly on the right track. Social Security benefits are indeed calculated using your highest 35 years of earnings (indexed for inflation). If you stop working at 60 and don't replace any of your existing 35 highest years, then yes, your benefit amount won't increase based on additional earnings. When using the SSA calculator, you should enter what you realistically expect to earn. If you'll earn zero, put zero. If you'll work part-time, estimate those earnings. The calculator will then give you the most accurate projection based on your input. Keep in mind that even if you don't work between 60-67, your benefit still increases by approximately 8% per year from your Full Retirement Age (which you correctly identified as 67) until age 70 if you delay claiming. This is completely separate from the earnings calculation.
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Saleem Vaziri
•Thank you for confirming! I was pretty sure I understood it correctly but needed to double check. I didn't realize the 8% increase was separate from the earnings calculation - that's helpful to know. Do you know if there's a way on the SSA website to see which of my 35 years are currently being counted as my highest? That would help me figure out if any part-time work might actually boost my benefit.
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James Maki
your not thinking about it right. SS uses your last 10 years not 35 years
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Kayla Morgan
•That's not correct. Social Security retirement benefits are definitely calculated using your highest 35 years of earnings, not your last 10 years. You might be thinking of Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), which does have a recent work test that looks at your work history in the 10 years before you became disabled, but that's different from retirement benefits.
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Jasmine Hancock
I went through the exact same planning process last year. You're absolutely correct that only earnings that replace one of your lowest earning years in your top 35 will increase your benefit amount. One thing I found helpful was creating an account on SSA.gov and downloading my complete earnings record. I put it in Excel and sorted by highest to lowest earnings (adjusting older years for inflation using their index factors). This showed me exactly which years were my top 35 and what the threshold would be for part-time work to make a difference. In my case, I discovered that working part-time at about $30,000/year would actually replace some of my early career years and slightly increase my future benefit. Might be worth checking your own numbers this way!
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Saleem Vaziri
•That's a brilliant idea to download the earnings record and sort it! I never thought of doing that. I'll definitely try this approach - I suspect some of my early years in the workforce were pretty low and might be easy to replace even with modest part-time work. Thanks for the tip!
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Cole Roush
I'm in a similar boat. Just turned 62 and I've been trying to figure all this out too. The whole system is SO confusing! I find the SSA website calculator gives me different numbers every time I use it. 🤦♀️ Anyone else have this problem?
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Scarlett Forster
•The SSA calculator results can vary depending on the inputs you provide each time. Make sure you're consistently entering the same future earnings expectations and retirement age. Also, there are different calculators on the SSA site - the Quick Calculator is less accurate than the Retirement Estimator that accesses your actual earnings record. If you're having trouble getting consistent answers online, you might want to try calling SSA directly to get a precise benefit estimate. I'd recommend using Claimyr (claimyr.com) to get through to an agent quickly instead of waiting on hold for hours. They have a video showing how it works at https://youtu.be/Z-BRbJw3puU. I used it last month when I needed to verify some benefit calculations and got through to an agent in minutes.
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Arnav Bengali
LISTEN UP - the SSA calculators are ALWAYS wrong!!! I retired early at 59 and when I finally claimed at 66, my actual benefit was over $400 LESS per month than what their stupid calculator predicted. They don't tell you about all the deductions and adjustments they make. And don't get me started on Medicare - total ripoff with all the supplemental plans you HAVE to buy or you're basically uninsured. The whole system is designed to confuse seniors!!
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Sayid Hassan
•That's strange... my mom's estimate was only off by like $30 when she started collecting last year. Maybe something else was going on with your calculation? Did you ask them to explain the difference?
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Kayla Morgan
One additional point that might be helpful - even if you stop working at 60, your past earnings are indexed for inflation when calculating your benefit. So while you won't have new earnings added to your record, the value of your existing earnings will still be adjusted upward over time to account for wage growth in the economy. This is why even if you input zero for future earnings on the SSA calculator, you might still see your projected benefit amount increase slightly over time. It's not just the delayed retirement credits (the 8% per year I mentioned earlier), but also this wage indexing factor that affects your Primary Insurance Amount (PIA).
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Saleem Vaziri
•Oh! I didn't know about the inflation indexing. That makes me feel better about retiring early. Between that and the delayed retirement credits, it sounds like my benefit will still be pretty solid even if I don't continue working full-time. Thank you for explaining this so clearly!
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James Maki
my brother retired at 58 and his ss check is tiny bc he didnt work enough years. make sure u have 40 credits or u might not get anything
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Kayla Morgan
•You're raising an important point about needing enough work credits, but there might be some confusion in your brother's situation. You need 40 credits (typically 10 years of work) to qualify for retirement benefits, but working only the minimum wouldn't necessarily result in a "tiny" check - it would be proportional to lifetime earnings. If someone has a very small benefit, it's usually because they had low earnings throughout their career, not just because they stopped working early. Since the original poster mentioned having 35+ years of work history already, they've definitely satisfied the 40 credits requirement.
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Jasmine Hancock
One other suggestion based on my experience - request a Social Security Statement by mail or print one from your online account. It gives a clearer breakdown of your estimated benefits at different ages than just using the calculator. When I was planning my retirement, I found that my benefit estimate at FRA (66+2 months for me) was about $2,850 if I continued working until then at my current salary. When I modeled stopping work at 60, it dropped to about $2,650. For me, that $200/month difference wasn't worth working an extra 6+ years at a stressful job. Everyone's numbers will be different, of course, but doing this calculation helped me make my decision.
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Saleem Vaziri
•Thank you for sharing your specific numbers - that's really helpful context. A $200 difference doesn't seem huge considering the quality of life improvement from retiring earlier. I'll definitely get a detailed statement and run the numbers both ways. My gut feeling is that I'd rather have more time than a slightly larger benefit, but I want to make sure the difference isn't dramatic in my case.
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Cole Roush
Does anyone know if you can start Medicare at 65 even if you're not taking SS yet? I'm so confused about how all these programs work together!
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Kayla Morgan
•Yes, you can (and generally should) sign up for Medicare at 65 regardless of when you start Social Security benefits. The two programs have different enrollment ages and rules. If you're not receiving Social Security benefits when you turn 65, you need to actively sign up for Medicare during your Initial Enrollment Period (starts 3 months before your 65th birthday month and ends 3 months after). If you miss this window, you might face late enrollment penalties. You can enroll online at Medicare.gov or through SSA.gov, or by visiting or calling your local Social Security office.
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