How to Increase Your Social Security Benefits

Let’s talk about how to increase your Social Security while you’re still working. So it seems logical, right? But how can we build a bigger Social Security in retirement while we’re still working? Well obviously, Social Security is based off the income we earn and what we paid into Social Security over the years. If you don’t already know, their equation they use is based off your 35 best working years. So, having at least 35 you know, years of credit, years of work during that time is beneficial. So if you don’t have 35 years, but enough quarters to qualify for Social Security, they’ll just put zeros in those other years that you don’t get it. So you just get zero credit. So it’s best to have a long and obviously strong earnings history over those 35 years. The other thing is, is earn more money, right? All are simple, right? But no, obviously raises and continuing to try and improve yourself over time, not only is good for in the short-term, maybe you can even save more, pay off debts faster, stuff like that. But also it gets credited and you pay on that Social Security to your account, right? So the higher your income, the more credit you’re getting towards that. Now the max in 2022 here is $147K of income will count towards that. And that’s what you’re paying Social Security tax on. If you’re earning more on than that, wonderful. You just don’t pay Social Security tax anymore, so you don’t get credit for that. So you want to strive for at least that amount of money to try to maximize the Social Security. So working beyond full retirement age. So typically later in your career, not always, but in most cases people tend to maybe promote or make more as they go along. So in those later working years, if you’ve reached a higher point in your career and you’re earning higher amounts than you ever have, there’s a benefit to your Social Security to keep working. I’m not talking about personally. Maybe your retirement sounds great. But once again, to build that Social Security as big as it possibly can. Once again, if you’re earning more and you’re knocking some of those lower years out earlier in life, you’re going to help increase that benefit. The other thing is, is make sure all of your work counts. So two things this could be. One, review your Social Security statement annually. Make sure that on that history, that allocation there where they have every year of your different things, it’s accurate. Double check those earnings and make sure they’re correct and the right dollar amounts are getting associated with the right years and somebody didn’t fail to report something or there wasn’t an error. The other thing is, is make sure that your work counts when it gets credited on that. Oftentimes, you know we hear stories that maybe people earning money that isn’t getting counted towards Social Security. Let’s call it under the table or whatever you want to call it. But make sure you’re getting paid legitimately and your employer is paying their portion of Social Security and you are as well. Otherwise, you’re not going to have a benefit. I’m not saying it’s the end all solution to everything. We’re talking about how to build your biggest Social Security. It’s typically a big portion of retirees’ income and you want to try to maximize it the best you can.