Ask Larry

Will My Benefit Increase If I Continue Working?

I took early retirement at age 62 I am still working I plan on retiring at age 81 will this increase my social security benefits

Hi. Retiring won't increase your Social Security benefit rate, but working and paying into Social Security could potentially increase your benefit rate. Whether or not your additional earnings would increase your benefit rate, though, depends on how much you earn in relation to what you earned in past years.

Social Security retirement benefits are based on an average of a person's highest 35 years of Social Security covered wage-indexed earnings, so additional years of earnings only increase a person's benefit rate if they're higher than one or more of the 35 years currently being used to calculate the person's benefit rate. If your earnings in the years after you started collecting benefits are high enough to raise your benefit rate, Social Security should automatically increase your rate and pay you any additional benefits due.

Best, Jerry

Category: 
Posted: 
Jan 28 2022 - 3:18pm
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