How To Increase Your Social Security Retirement Benefits

Have someone contact you to discuss ways to increase your Social Security retirement benefits.

Most techniques to maximize Social Security benefits come at a cost

Most methods to increase your Social Security benefits come at a cost.  You might have to work longer hours.  You will most likely pay more payroll withholding.  You might take more wages out of your business.  You might move wages to or from your spouse.  You might postpone retirement.

To maximize Social Security retirement benefits, we will go step by step through the Social Security benefits computation to see how and if you can manipulate your situation to your advantage.

Improve your Average Monthly Indexed Earnings (AIME)

I have had people call about wanting to increase their last 5 years of earnings to maximize their Social Security.  It doesn't work that way!

For Social Security, you use your best 35 years of earnings, not 5 years.  In addition to that, those years are adjusted for inflation.  Thus, if you have worked 40 years, the Social Security Administration will throw out your 5 worst years. In this calculation, you get no benefit for earnings that exceeded the Social Security earnings maximum for a given year.

Suggestions:

• If you have worked for less than 35 years, try to work enough to get 35 years of earnings.
• If in your highest 35 years of earnings you had some low income years, try to work longer to replace old low earnings years with high earnings years.
• If you own a business and you have some discretion as to how much you can take out of...

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