FINANCE
A guide to estimating your Social Security benefit amount
Here is a quick guide to calculating the value of your Social Security benefit check and tools that can help facilitate that process.
In April 2024, more than 67 million people in the US received Social Security benefit payments because they qualified as retired workers, disabled workers, or survivors.
The Social Security Administration (SSA) is expected to send out more than $1 trillion over the course of the year, and the amount each recipient gets is a highly personalized calculation.
In 2024, the average monthly retirement benefit is $1,915, but these payments can be as high as $4,873 for someone recently filed at full retirement age. Here’s how to work out your Social Security entitlement…
How are Social Security payments calculated?
The SSA bases the Social Security entitlement on data gathered throughout your working life, which is formed into an earnings record. This information is then used, with a three-part process, to calculate the size of payments:
Average Indexed Monthly Earnings (AIME) – The SSA uses your 35 best-paid years to calculate your AIME, essentially a snapshot of your historical earnings. The more you earn, the higher your monthly entitlement, up to a maximum threshold of $142,800 (as of 2021).
Primary Insurance Amount (PIA) – Assuming that you wait until full retirement age (currently 66 years and two months) before claiming Social Security, your PIA is the amount you’ll receive each month from the SSA.
Your PIA is comprised of
- 90% of the first $996 of your AIME;
- 32% of any amount over $996 up to $6,002;
- and 15% of any amount over $6,002
Age of claim – If you decide to claim Social Security before you reach full retirement age, your monthly entitlement will decrease. This is done on a sliding scale, with more than a quarter of the payment size being lost if you claim at the age of 62. Alternatively, if you delay the payment until you are 70, you can add up to 30 percent to your payment amount.
How to calculate your Social Security entitlement
Calculating your Social Security monthly payments can be confusing, and picking the opportune moment to claim the benefits can be crucial for your long-term financial stability.
Fortunately, the SSA provides two easy-to-use online tools for checking your earnings history and estimating your future Social Security entitlement.
The first is your Social Security Statement, which allows anyone over the age of 18 to see your current situation. The statement can be accessed through a mySocialSecurity account, which lists how much you have paid so far, your current AIME, and other important financial details.
The second is the Retirement Estimator, which uses your actual Social Security earnings record to calculate your monthly payments when you decide to claim. However, bear in mind that this is just an estimate and could vary if your personal situation or the Social Security benefits programe change over.