The Current Social Security Benefit Computation

The following is the way one would calculate Social Security Benefits today:

1. Find the Normal Retirement Age.
2. Calculate the Average Indexed Monthly Earnings (AIME).
3. Calculate the Primary Insurance Amount (PIA). After doing that, make adjustments for early or late retirement and cost of living adjustments (COLA).
4. Calculate any spouse's benefits.

Do You Want To Know How Much Money You Will Get From Social Security

The above four steps is an over simplification. The purpose of presenting those steps is to give you an idea how your benefit amount will be arrived at. If your question is more along the lines of "What will my benefits be?" either download our free software or go the Social Security Administration's PEBES web page.