Will Social Security estimator assume I'm working until FRA even if I retire early?

Thanks for clarifying! So if the estimate seems higher than expected, it might be because it's assuming I maintain my current salary until 63? I was thinking it might just use my earnings history up to now (age 58) without projecting any future earnings. That would explain why the number looks better than I thought.

Oh! That explains everything. I was using the Quick Calculator. I'll try the more detailed one through my SSA account. I need to be really precise with these numbers for my retirement planning.

I tried going to my local office too but the wait was almost 3 hours!! Ended up leaving without seeing anyone. Called the 800 number and got disconnected twice. The whole system is broken if you ask me. 😡

That's another good point I hadn't considered - separating the retirement date from the claiming date. So theoretically I could stop working at 63 but not claim until 67 to get my full benefit amount. Though financially I'm not sure I could swing 4 years with no income.

Thanks, it's weirdly comforting to know I'm not the only one confused by this! I'll definitely use the detailed calculator and manually set my earnings to zero after age 63.

Never heard of this service before but just bookmarked it. I spent over 3 hours on hold last time I called SSA and still didn't get through! Definitely worth looking into for next time.

That's because the quick calculator makes more general assumptions about your earnings history. The detailed calculator is using your actual earnings record as recorded by SSA, which is almost always more accurate. Always trust the numbers from your my Social Security account or the detailed calculator over the quick one.

That's a crucial point I hadn't considered. I started working at 22, so by 63 I'd have 41 years of work. But some of those early years had very low earnings, so working longer would actually replace those low-earning years with higher ones. Definitely something to factor into my decision.

This manual approach sounds incredibly valuable! I'm wondering - when you were looking at your earnings record, did you adjust those older earnings for inflation, or did you work with the raw numbers? I know SSA adjusts historical earnings to current dollars for the benefit calculation, but I'm not sure if that's something I need to do myself when analyzing which years would get replaced. Also, did you find any surprises in your earnings record that you had to correct with SSA before doing your analysis?

Great question! The SSA actually does the inflation adjustment automatically in their system - they use something called the Average Wage Index to convert all your historical earnings to today's dollars before doing the 35-year calculation. So when you're doing your own analysis, you can work with the raw numbers from your earnings record, but keep in mind that a $15,000 year from 1990 might actually be worth more in the calculation than a $25,000 year from 2010 after adjustment. As for surprises - yes! I found two years where my employer had reported my earnings incorrectly (one was too low, one was too high). I also discovered that some freelance work I did in the early 2000s never got properly credited because I hadn't filed the right forms. Had to submit a bunch of old tax returns and W-2s to get it corrected. Definitely worth checking your record thoroughly before making any major retirement decisions!

Great question! When I did my manual analysis, I worked with the raw numbers from my earnings record first, then looked up the SSA's wage indexing factors to adjust the older years to current dollars - that's what they actually use in the benefit calculation. You can find these indexing factors on the SSA website under "wage indexing." For example, my 1985 earnings of $18,000 gets indexed to about $45,000 in today's dollars for the calculation. As for surprises - yes! I found two years in the early 90s where my earnings were significantly under-reported, probably due to employer errors. I had to contact SSA with old W-2s to get those corrected. It's definitely worth reviewing your entire record carefully before doing this analysis. The corrected years actually moved up in my "top 35" ranking, which improved my projected benefit more than I expected.

Great question about the inflation adjustments! When I did my manual analysis, I worked with the raw historical numbers from my SSA statement first, then used SSA's online wage indexing table to convert them to current dollars myself. It's a bit tedious but gives you the real picture of how SSA will calculate your benefit. And yes, I found two errors in my record! One year from 1995 was completely missing (employer never reported it properly), and another year from 2003 had my earnings understated by about $8,000. I had to dig up old tax returns and W-2s to prove the corrections to SSA. The process took about 3 months but was worth it - those corrections added roughly $35/month to my projected benefit. Always worth double-checking your record before making major retirement decisions!

Great question about the inflation adjustments! When I did my manual analysis, I actually used the raw numbers from my earnings record at first, but then I realized that wasn't giving me the full picture. The SSA automatically adjusts your historical earnings using their Average Wage Index, so a $20,000 salary from 1985 might be worth $50,000+ in today's calculation. I found a calculator online that uses the SSA's wage indexing factors to convert historical earnings to current dollars - that's what you need to compare apples to apples when figuring out which years would get bumped out. As for surprises in my record - yes! I found two years where my earnings were significantly understated because of a job change where the old employer reported incorrectly. Had to contact SSA to get those corrected with W-2 copies. Definitely worth reviewing your entire record carefully before making any major retirement decisions.

Great question about the inflation adjustments! When I did my manual analysis, I worked with the raw historical numbers from my SSA statement, but then I had to look up SSA's wage indexing factors to convert them to today's dollars - that's the tricky part most people don't realize. SSA has a table of these indexing factors on their website that shows how much each year's wages get multiplied by for the benefit calculation. As for surprises - oh yes! I found two years where my employer apparently didn't report my full earnings correctly, and one year was completely missing. Had to call SSA (used that Claimyr service someone mentioned earlier - totally worth it!) to get those corrected. Made about a $150/month difference in my projected benefit once fixed. Definitely recommend checking your record carefully before doing any retirement planning!