How much does social security pay?

What if you had a really high salary and worked your whole life....How much would you get?

• God forbid you should check the website, OP.

  SIRI

• More than those who didn't make much/work much, but not enough to live comfortably on.

• roughly 2500 a month give or take a couple of hundred

• OP is proof that you do not have to have sense to have $18.

• I love R4...so quirky and hilarious. Makes DL so worthwhile.

• Get a fuckin' job and stop trying to mooch off the government's teat.

• OP is an entitled, shit!

  GOP

• the website was down and I wanted to know the amount to prove a point to a relative that even if you make Mitt Romney type money...SSI would still amount to very little. The relative plans to live off it.

  op

• When I got on it, I just told the SSA how money I'd need for a reasonably cushy retirement and they said, "Mokay, mokey bear."

  Maui%20Mokey

• OP, don't confuse Social Security with SSI.

• I get a statement from the Department of Social Security showing how much I pay in every year and what my benefits will be upon retirement and/or disability. So should you.

• Social Security takes your five highest-earning years and your check is based on that--thank goodness.

• $2,513 a month. You're welcome.

• Really? I guess my parents didn't make muc h but they got $1300. which I was told was the average.

• R12--the formula is much more complicated that that, and many more working years involved.

• You can have high earnings, but Social Security only taxes up to $110,100 (for 2012) and $113,700 (for 2013). Everything above that is not taxed for FICA.

• When a friend applied they had no record of his past ten years at the same job. His employer was sending contributions to an SS number off by one digit. It took six months to get it straightened out. Check your next pay stub to make sure they have the correct number.

• "the website was down and I wanted to know the amount to prove a point to a relative" Oh sure.

• R3 and R13, you both are dead wrong. The average amount received by millions of recepients is $1200 per month. I get $1300 per month after working 37 years - 23 years of which were holding an excellent job. I retired at age 62. If I had waited until full retirement age of 65 or 66, I would have rec'd around $1900 per month. It is quoted quite often in articles and literature that most people receive around $1200.

• In Canada they raised social security to age 67 And you only get about $500.00 a month

• R17 There's no excuse for that. SS sends everyone a yearly statement of the earnings that have been reported to them. Also, the SSN that is used is shown on the W-2.

• sorry, recipients (not recepients)

• Good Lord, is Canada falling apart? $500 per month?

• R19, Sorry. R13 was right. The question was the highest amount- presumably for someone who maxes out, not what YOU get or what other "average" people get. The maximum possible Social Security benefit for a worker who begins collecting benefits at their full retirement age will be $2,533 in 2013, up from $2,513 per month in 2012.

• R24, okay, but you are confusing the issue. The OP wants to know what an average person would receive after working a lifetime. The OP does not wish to know what people with the largest salaries (or just large salaries) and well-off people will receive when they retire. Stop confusing everyone, R24. Most people will receive around $1200 to $1300.

• Also, a widely known statistic is that two-thirds of people in the U.S. retire at 62, not at their full retirement age of 65 to 66.

• "What if you had a really high salary and worked your whole life....How much would you get?" How is that asking about an average person? Maybe we just have different views of really high salary. I'm not thinking about someone who works a decent-paying ( say union labor) job for 30-40 years. To me, someone with a really high salary, working their whole life is going to max out their top earning years and probably have 50-60 years with earnings ( though they would be mostly irrelevant in the calculations on the low end).

• The OP explained further in R8 - but the OP is still asking the wrong question(s). What one person can live comfortably on, another person finds it impossible. I live on $1300 per month from social security but supplement it with 401(k) money from an IRA I have. That is what the OP needs to tell his relative. The relative of the OP can live on $1300 to $1900 per month from social security but he needs to supplement it with 401(k) money or other money.

• People retire at 62 because they expect to die early, are desperate for the money because they blew it all or had some tragedy, and/or have very high time preference.

• The statistic that two thirds of people start collecting social security at age 62 are NOT people who expect to die early. All types of people and various socio-economic group members are retiring at age 62. And it isn't people who blew all their money. R29, you are completely wrong and you don't have any idea what you are talking about. That will probably change for those of you who are currently in your 20's, 30's, and maybe early 40's. But it's true for those currently in their 50's and often late 40's. And people who have held long-term government jobs often retire at age 55 because govt jobs allow this. (they, of course, can't start collecting social security until age 62)

• I get the max and after Medicare it nets at about 2200.00 This with my pension and income from a couple of rentals allows me to live.

• Sounds like you made high level earnings when you were working - because more ordinary people like myself pay $104.97 per month for Medicare which is automatically deducted from our social security monthly income - while you're saying that you pay at least $300 from your monthly social security income and $300 is only deducted from monthly social security income if one has been a high level earner. You also require quite a bit more to live currently than most ordinary people.

• [quote]And people who have held long-term government jobs often retire at age 55 because govt jobs allow this. (they, of course, can't start collecting social security until age 62) Federal employees who were hired before 1984 weren't covered by SS. I started in 1974 and retired at age 58. I get a nice pension (around 70% of my high-three salary after 37 years) but will never get SS. Even if I work elsewhere and earn enough credits, they'll take away more than 90% of any SS I might eventually eligible to receive.

• R33, did you also not have to pay into SS?

• R34 No, just Medicare. But if I went to work now, I'd have to pay into SS and would never receive anything for it.

• Getting back to R23 Yep Canada is going down the toilet. No social security until age 67, and only $500 a month.

• I retired in May at age 62 and would have gotten approximately $1200 a month. I was told I could collect $1700 a month survivor benefits from my husband. The weird thing is he died in 1981 and was only making $25,000 a year. I don't understand how some one who died so long ago and made that little amount, their SS benefit would be more then mine?

• R37, very weird, so are you collecting $1700 per month now? I would have gotten only $300 per month collecting my ex-spouse's of 16 years social security. Weird. I'm going to check with soc sec again. R37, perhaps you were offered survivor's benefits rather than regular social security retirement? That's what it has to be in your circumstanc......

• R38 I took the $1700 a month. They told me even if I waited till I was 66 my SS would have been less then the survivor benefit. I think SS survivor benefits and regular SS retirement benefits are the same thing. It's based on wages earned. His wages stopped when he died 30 yrs ago.

• R39, no, survivor's benefits and regular social security retirement benefits are not the same thing nor equivalent.

• ok R40. But can you explain why I can collect more under his benefits considering the circumstances. The woman at SS didn't even know.

• Here's are some key sections from a summary of what to expect from benefits, including what it takes to achieve the maximum benefit and other factors that figure into the calculation. [quote]Consider the averages. In June 2011, the average Social Security benefit was $1,180.80 per month. The maximum possible benefit for a worker retiring at age 66 in 2011 is $2,366. But to get this amount, the worker would need to earn the maximum taxable amount, currently $106,800, each year after age 21. {quote]Familiarize yourself with the formula. Social Security benefits are calculated based on your 35 highest-earning years in the workforce, and are adjusted for inflation. If you don't have 35 years of earnings, zeros are averaged in for the years you didn't work at a job in which you paid into Social Security. The proportion of your income that is replaced by Social Security varies based on how much you earn. Consider a worker who turns 62 in 2011. To calculate his benefit, the first $749 of his average monthly earnings is multiplied by 90 percent, the next $3,768 by 32 percent, and the remainder by 15 percent. The sum of these three amounts equals his initial monthly payment amount. Workers also have cost-of-living increases added to their benefit beginning at age 62, even if they don't begin to receive benefits until a later year. [quote]Try different retirement dates. The date you first sign up for benefits also has a large impact on how much you will receive. "The biggest effect you can have on your benefit is when you claim," says Steve Sass, a research associate at the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. You won't get the full amount you are entitled to unless you wait until your full retirement age, which for most workers is age 66 or 67. Your payout will be reduced if you claim early, and increase if you postpone collecting your payments. For example, a worker entitled to $1,000 per month at age 66 would get 25 percent less, or $750 per month, if he signed up at age 62. However, if he waited until age 70 to collect, he would get $1,320 per month, 32 percent more. There is no additional benefit for delaying claiming beyond age 70.

  http://money.usnews.com/money/retirement/articles/2011/08/01/how-to-predict-your-social-security-payout

• R21 SS stopped sending out the statements a year or 2 ago.

• R42 states: "Workers also have cost-of-living increases added to their benefit beginning at age 62" R42, the increase for 2013 was only 1.7 percent and we don't expect more than that in future years. So my monthly social security check went up $23, but $6 of it went for the increase in Medicare which went from $99 per month to $104.97 per month which is automatically deducted from the monthly soc sec check. And the remaining $17 per month went to purchase a Medicare Part D prescription drug plan which all people on Medicare are required to purchase unless they want to be fined by the federal govt one percent per month (12 percent per year) until one buys a plan or wants to buy a plan.

• Yeah, mine is about $2400 a month, or at least that's what the summaries they send out on occasion say.

  LuciferTheLightBringer

• R46, that's only if you make a very high salary for many years and work until 66 or 67. " for a worker retiring at age 66 in 2011 is $2,366. But to get this amount, the worker would need to earn the maximum taxable amount, currently $106,800, each year after age 21."

• "In June 2011, the average Social Security benefit was $1,180.80 per month." Just as I stated at the beginning of this thread, the average amount most people get is $1200.