If you’re wondering how much is the most you can receive from Social Security, your answer is that it depends on your age, your work history, your marital status and your retirement decisions, beginning to answer the immediate questions about maximum Social Security benefits.
Social Security benefits that are paid in 2024, then we’ll explore how you can get the most out of your Social Security benefits. The highest Social Security retirement benefit for a citizen who begins receiving benefits this year 2024 is $4,873 monthly, according to the Social Security Administration (SSA), this amount will be paid to workers who claim their Social Security benefits until who reach 70 years of age in 2024 and have obtained the maximum salary covered by Social Security for 35 years.
The Maximum Social Security According to Your Age
The maximum Social Security benefit for those aged 70 has notably risen from the 2023 figure of $4,559 monthly. Suppose you hit your “full retirement age” in 2024 at 66 years and 8 months. Opting to start receiving benefits then would yield $3,822 monthly, assuming 35 years of maximum wage coverage.
The term “full retirement age” can be misleading, not necessarily aligning with the age for the highest Social Security benefit. Your decision on when to start benefits directly affects your monthly payout, with reductions if you start before full retirement age.
How Is the Maximum Social Security Benefit Calculated?
To understand how Social Security retirement benefits are calculated and how to get the most out of your benefit, you’ll need to understand some terms.
Social Security uses a complicated benefit formula that calculates your “primary insurance amount” (PIA) at your full retirement age (FRA), if you actually start your retirement income at your FRA, then your retirement benefit monthly will be equal to your PIA.
One piece of information for the formula used to calculate benefits is the average amount of your income that has been covered by Social Security, on average, over 35 working years. This average is known as “indexed average monthly income” (AIME). . The higher your AIME, the higher your PIA and income.
The maximum amount of your income that counts each year towards your AIME is called the “Social Security Wage Base” (SSWB), it grows year by year and, by the year 2024, it is equivalent to $168,600, the SSWB is also the maximum amount used for Social Security purposes.
Years With Zero Income Impact on Your Retirement
If you had covered income for more than 35 years, the AIME calculation chooses the income that gives you the highest average, if you had covered income for less than 35 years, then the AIME calculation will complete “zero income” for each year under 35 years of age in which he did not generate income.
Your FRA will depend on your year of birth and is 66 years if your year of birth is between 1943 and 1954, then increases two months for each year of birth, then until reaching age 67 for people born in 1960 and later.
The age at which you start perceive Social Security retirement income also influences the amount of your benefit you receive all the months, if you retire before your FRA and begin receiving benefits, then your benefit per month will be equal to your PIA, reduced by a percentage for each month your benefit begins before your FRA (62 is the starting age earlier).
