Reaching the golden years and collecting a Social Security check is one of the big goals for United States citizens. Undoubtedly, having such a monthly check is a great economic relief for Americans.
However, before we start collecting one of these monthly checks, we must keep in mind that we have to meet certain requirements. Although it is true that there are ways to collect a Social Security check without meeting these conditions, it is common to be part of the group of retirees in this way.
What are the requirements for collecting Social Security?
Depending on the category of retirement, we will have to meet certain requirements. This time we will focus on retirement by age. So these requirements do not apply to those retired for Disability or other reasons.
In order to be able to collect a Social Security age-based check we must:
- Be a minimum of 62 years old. This may vary somewhat depending on our year of birth. But the usual minimum age is 62.
- Have worked a minimum of 10 years. It is not obligatory to have done so continuously, but it can be in different periods of our life.
Fulfilling these minimum requirements we will obtain a payment from Social Security, but it will not be enough to obtain a good monthly check. To do this, we must maximize our options.
How do you maximize your Social Security check?
As we have already seen, the minimum retirement age is 62 and the minimum years worked is 10 years. But this would give us a very small Social Security check. In order to get the biggest possible check we will have to take into account three aspects:
- Delay the retirement age.
- Get a high salary during your working years.
- Contribute as a worker for 35 years.
Thanks to maximize all this, we will obtain a check as close as possible to the maximum of 4,873 dollars in 2024. While it is true that obtaining such a high Social Security is not possible, it is also true that we could obtain a similar amount if we know how to organize our retirement.
The more years worked with a high salary, the bigger the check we will get from the Administration. In the case of the retirement age, the ideal is to wait until at least 67 years of age, but we could also wait until 70 years of age and thus maximize the Social Security within our possibilities.