Will Social Security benefits reduce if I stop working at 60 instead of 65?

Your friends giving you the 40 credits info are confusing ELIGIBILITY with BENEFIT AMOUNT. The 40 credits only determines if you can get benefits at all, not how much you'll receive. Your actual benefit is based on your highest 35 earnings years, so yes, adding zeros in there by retiring early could affect your payment. This happened to my sister-in-law and she was really surprised by how much lower her benefit ended up being!

This is a great question and a common point of confusion. Let me explain how it works: Your Social Security retirement benefit is based on your highest 35 years of earnings throughout your career (adjusted for inflation). The Social Security Administration takes these earnings and applies a formula to determine your Primary Insurance Amount (PIA), which is your benefit at Full Retirement Age. If you stop working at 60: 1. SSA will still use your highest 35 years to calculate your benefit 2. If you have fewer than 35 years of earnings, zeros will be included in the calculation 3. If those years between 60-65 would have been higher earning years than some already in your 35, replacing those early, lower-earning years, then yes, your benefit would be lower than if you had worked until 65 The 40 credits (or "quarters") only determine eligibility for benefits, not the amount you'll receive. Hope this helps!

i retired at 59 and my ss check is way less than if i kept working. my brother worked until 67 and gets almost $800 more a month than me even tho we had similar jobs. those last high earning years make a BIG difference!!

Everyone's situation is different, but yes, your Social Security benefit could be reduced if you stop working at 60 instead of 65. Here's what's important to understand: SSA calculates your benefit using your highest 35 years of indexed earnings. If your current earnings are higher than your earnings from when you were younger (which is usually the case for most people), then replacing 5 potential high-earning years with zeros could definitely impact your monthly benefit. One option to consider: instead of fully retiring at 60, could you switch to part-time work until your FRA? Even earning less than your current salary would still be better than zeros in the calculation. Also, have you created an account at my.ssa.gov and reviewed your earnings record? The benefit estimator there can show you different scenarios based on when you stop working.

Best thing you can do is talk to an actual SSA representative to get the real facts for YOUR specific situation. I tried calling them for months last year and kept getting disconnected or waiting for 3+ hours. Finally used Claimyr (claimyr.com) to get through - they connected me with an agent in under 20 minutes. There's a video showing how it works here: https://youtu.be/Z-BRbJw3puU. The agent was able to run different retirement scenarios for me showing exactly how much I'd get at different stopping points. Made my decision SO much easier with actual numbers.

I think u should work as long as possible!!! SS benefits r SO LOW compared to ACTUAL COST OF LIVING these days!!! My aunt retired early and REGRETS IT EVERYDAY!!!! The system is RIGGED against early retirement!!!!

To add some actual numbers to this discussion: Each year of zero earnings that replaces a year of good earnings in your 35-year calculation could reduce your monthly benefit by about 1/35th (roughly 2.85%). So if you have 5 years of zeros replacing what would have been higher-earning years, your benefit could be reduced by roughly 14% compared to what it would have been had you continued working at the same income level. However, this is a simplified explanation. The actual calculation involves indexing for inflation and applying specific formulas to different portions of your average indexed monthly earnings (AIME). The reduction might be less dramatic depending on your specific earnings history. This is why checking the benefit estimator on my.ssa.gov with different retirement ages can be so helpful for planning.

My husband and I both retired at 58. We did the math and figured out that even though our SS would be a bit lower, the extra years of freedom were worth more to us than the money! No regrets 7 years later! Life is short - if you can afford to retire earlier, DO IT! The extra money doesn't help if you're too old to enjoy it.

I'm confused about something... I thought SS only counts your last 10 years of work? Is that completely wrong?