United States Social Security benefits depend on what individual retirees make in their work history. For that reason, getting a larger check every month is in the beneficiary’s own hands. So if we are close to applying for retirement we may be able to extend that check to reach the largest possible payment every month.
Even if we are only 4 or 5 years away from retirement, increasing our Social Security check is possible. Just by being mindful of what items we are the ones to maximize we are going to be able to reach a better figure for the monthly retirement benefit check. And if we maximize this over a longer period of time, the payment will be larger, so we will have better golden years.
Still, it’s true that not all Americans can maximize all the elements attached to the Social Security check. But it is also true that there is one of these elements that we are always going to be able to maximize, regardless of our job title or our salary. So if we keep this in mind we should know that the monthly retirement payment can turn out to be much larger for us. Do you want to increase your retirement payment?
How to increase your monthly Social Security check?
The first thing first of all is to know what are the elements that make up the Social Security check. These elements are mainly three and the Administration will send us the monthly check depending on these three elements. So, depending on what we do with them, we will have a bigger or smaller check.
On the one hand, we have the retirement age. On the other hand, the salary during the years worked. Finally, the years worked as such. In order to have a good payment we have to be able to increase these three elements to the maximum. If we are close to retirement there is still time to increase the three elements to achieve a more comfortable position during the golden years of our life.
In this sense, we must keep in mind that what we will always be able to increase will be the retirement age. The minimum age to apply for Social Security is 62, but it is not mandatory to apply for payment at that age. The maximum, which should be our goal, is 70. Only then will we reach the maximum check within our means.
In terms of years worked, the ideal is to reach 35 years with a high salary. These two elements are important, but it is more important to have a stable salary for 35 years than to have a high salary for 15 years and no salary for the rest of the time. The Social Security Administration calculates our benefit payment starting at age 35 with the highest salary and if we have no salary for some time the average benefit will go way down.
In short, if you are close to retirement you should keep in mind that you have to earn a higher salary and work until age 70 to get a good Social Security check. Even so, it is also possible to reach 35 years of work if you have not worked for 35 years. If you have already worked 35 years, try to get a higher salary in the last years, since the Administration will calculate your retirement at the age of 35 with the highest salary of all your work history.