However hard it may seem, there are people who manage to get a retirement benefit as high as $3,000. In fact, Social Security benefits are just a support to your life savings. It will be very difficult to live off the retirement benefits alone. The average check retirees get every month is approximately $1,600. So, you will need to do several things in order to get up to $3,000 or even more.
The first thing to achieve is to work for 35 years. Unless you reach that number of years, the amount you will receive will not be that high. If you have worked longer than 35 five years, they will only take into account the years when your earnings were the highest. The year that you were born will also be necessary to work it out.
Apart from the aforementioned, SSA will use what is known as the primary insurance amount. PIA is basically the benefit a worker who paid Social Security would get. This would be the case if they choose to retire at their normal retirement age. Bear in mind that at this age, your benefit will neither go down nor increase. If you would like to have a sample of the formula click here.
Will you have a higher Social Security benefit if you delay your retirement?
Yes, you will certainly have a much higher benefit if you decide to retire at the age of 70. You should take into account that you could boost your benefit by 8% each year you delay it. So, if you wait until you are 70 to retire you could get 24% more than by retiring three years before. However, it does not keep increasing after the age of 70.
Earnings a little below $69,000 would be enough to receive a $3,000 check for your retirement benefit if you retire at the age of 70. There are many people who opt for retiring many years before being 67. Once you start retirement at the age of 62, you are reducing the amount of money you get in your benefits. It is true that you will enjoy a longer retirement, but not having saved enough could make it difficult to get by.
The average salary you should have had is a little less than $5,750 each month. If you manage to earn that amount of money or even more, you work for 35 years and delay your retirement until you are 70, you might be able to get it. Why not use the Social Security Benefits Calculator? In this way, you can work out the amount you could get and find out the earnings you might need to achieve it.