Social security benefits involve payments to retirees, their children, spouses, or survivors who are qualified. These benefits can be increased by making a few changes before and after retirement.
Brokerage Specialists located in Grand Island, NE, provide retirement plans to help clients maximize the benefits.
Learn more about how you can increase your social security benefits in today’s post.
50% to 85% of the projected benefits may be subjected to taxes. This occurs when the retirement income is supplemented by working after receiving social security benefits. To avoid this, consider spreading your income from different places to prevent any increase that may trigger high taxes.
When social security benefits are delayed, you earn up to an 8% annual return from available benefits. This increases with every year that is delayed until you reach the age of 70. If your full retirement age is 66, you can delay it to get more benefits from the annual returns.
Social security benefits calculations are based on lifetime earnings. First, the earnings are adjusted and indexed to include changes in the average wage in the years you got the earnings. Next, totals from the highest earnings in the 35 years are indexed to get the average monthly earnings, then a formula is followed to determine how much you will receive when you reach the full retirement age.
Working for 35 years means that each year will replace the previous lower-earning, thus increasing the average benefits.
You can claim your spouse’s benefits and let yours keep growing if both of you have attained the full retirement age. A spouse must file for their security benefits for the other one to claim it, but this exempts ex-spouses.