For many United States citizens, Social Security retirement means rest. But not everyone who starts collecting a Social Security pension stops working. There are many people who, for a variety of reasons, prefer to keep working a few hours. Many people work to get more money, others because they want to continue working, but the truth is that not everyone stops working when they retire.
If you are thinking of continuing to work when you ask for retirement, you should know that there is a limit of hours to receive money from both places. Therefore, it is good to keep track of all these details. You cannot work full time because you will have problems with Social Security. Then you must know all the details of the maximum hours you can work and collect your retirement pension at the same time.
Claiming Social Security and working before FRA
There is one thing to be very clear about when it comes to work and Social Security: there are no work limits. You can work as long as you want, up to age 80 if you want to. That will not cause you to lose any rights. The particular problem comes when you are collecting Social Security and working at the same time.
If you do not reach Full Retirement Age (FRA), you are still a worker and not a retiree. This means that you will have a certain limit on your earnings per year, but those earnings will later be reflected in your Social Security pension. For every $2 you earn over $19,560, the SSA will withhold $1 from your earnings. Therefore, the hours you can work in this situation will depend on what you earn per hour. In other words, it is not the number of hours worked that is important, but the amount of money per hour that you receive.
Applying for FRA and working
Just in the year when you can claim FRA, Social Security sets the earnings limit a little higher. This time, the money you can earn is up to $51,960 a year. If you exceed this limit, you must pay $1 for every $3 extra. If you don’t reach that figure, don’t worry, you can work as many hours as you want. The calculation of hours is the same as previously discussed. You need to know how much money you earn for an hour and then it will work itself out.
After you apply for FRA, you can continue to work as many hours as you want. Social Security will not limit your earnings at all if you reach this age. In other words, after you reach age 67, you can work and collect your SSA pension at the same time without seeing a reduction in the amount you receive. However, sometimes this advantage is not worth it and it is better to rest on your own, collecting only the retirement pension. It all depends on your approach and needs.