Six levers that let you increase your Social Security benefit

Full analysis

Roger Whitney, a retirement planner, walks through six areas where people have real control over their Social Security outcome: reviewing your earnings record for zeros or errors, choosing when to claim between 62 and 70, managing what income you realize in retirement, withdrawing a premature application within 12 months, considering how your state taxes benefits, and coordinating with a spouse's or ex-spouse's record. Each lever carries trade-offs — for example, working fewer than 35 years leaves zeros in your record that drag down your average indexed monthly earnings (the figure Social Security uses to set your base benefit), and retiring before full retirement age creates projected-earnings gaps the Social Security Administration fills in automatically on your statement, which can make your estimated benefit look higher than it will actually be.

Whitney emphasizes that the Social Security Administration's free ANYPIA calculator lets you input your actual earnings history and model the effect of early retirement or additional work years before making a claiming decision. He also notes that if you claim before full retirement age and earn more than the 2024 earnings limit of $24,480, your benefit is reduced by $1 for every $2 over that threshold — using Wanda Worker as an example, earning $40,000 while collecting early turned a $17,580 annual benefit into $9,820 for that year. After full retirement age the earnings test disappears, but up to 85% of your benefit can become taxable income depending on your total income.