As soon as a United States citizen begins to collect a Social Security check, he or she can know when he or she will get his or her check each month. Although it is true that sometimes we can find irregularities, it is also true that it is usual for this calendar to follow certain guidelines. So, knowing the calendar is enough to be able to determine each month the day on which we will receive our retirement check.
To better understand the situation we must understand that the Social Security Administration divides retirees and paydays into 4 different days. So if you want to get one of these benefits you should take a good look at which group of retirees you belong to. Each group of retirees has very specific characteristics so that beneficiaries can organize themselves in the best possible way.
And the moment we belong to one of these groups we cannot change. So we have to look very well both the characteristics of each group and the requirements to get each of the Social Security checks. These requirements can be 1 or 2, depending on the specific group. But best of all, the schedule is fairly regular, so we can mark month by month when to get a check.
Why can’t I get next week’s Social Security?
The reason we can’t get next week’s Social Security check is very simple. As a matter of fact, only one group will collect the payment next January 17th. So if we can’t get this day’s payment it means that we don’t belong to that group. In order to belong to the group it is mandatory to fulfill two requirements.
If we do not meet them it means that we belong to another group and as we belong to another group we get the payment on a different day. The conditions for payment on January 17th are as follows:
- To have Social Security since after 1997.
- To have a birthday between the 11th and 20th of any month.
So now you know what the conditions are to be able to collect the payment on January 17th. The rest of the retirees have other different payment days, so we have to know the calendar perfectly to mark on which day we collect. In the month of January there are four paydays in total, which are the 3rd, 10th, 17th and 24th of the month.
Can I increase my retirement payment?
Regardless of whether we retired at age 62, 65, 67 or 70, increasing our Social Security check is not possible. In order to maximize your retirement payment, you need to plan ahead for this item. There are three aspects that cause the monthly check to increase, which are the retirement age, the years worked and the salary during those years.
Thus, if we want to have the maximum possible check it is mandatory to work for 35 years with a high salary and retire at age 70. This will make it possible for us to have a payment of up to $4,873 per month. Anything short of those three elements will take us away from this figure.
Still, it is true that it is not mandatory to get to have such a high check. Even lower checks could be enough to live on, especially if we combine them with the other Social Security payment, Supplemental Security Income, or USDA’s SNAP.