Benefits Planner: Retirement | Online Benefits Calculator (2024)

FAQs

What is the formula for retirement benefit? ›

Retirement Calculation Formula

Your retirement benefit is calculated using a formula with three factors: Service credit (Years) multiplied by your benefit factor (percentage per year) multiplied by your final monthly compensation equals your unmodified allowance.

Multipliers are sometimes known by other terms, such as “accrual rate” or “crediting rate” but they mean the same thing. A typical multiplier is 2%. So, if you work 30 years, and your final average salary is $75,000, then your pension would be 30 x 2% x $75,000 = $45,000 a year.

The point is that if you earned $120,000 per year for the past 35 years, thanks to the annual maximum taxable wage limits, the maximum Social Security benefit you could get at full retirement age is $2,687.

If you have a personal my Social Security account, you can get an estimate of your future retirement benefits and see the effects of different retirement age scenarios. If you don't have a personal my Social Security account, create one at www.ssa.gov/myaccount.

The first step is to get an estimate of how much you will need to retire securely. One rule of thumb is that you'll need 70% of your annual pre-retirement income to live comfortably. That might be enough if you've paid off your mortgage and you're in excellent health when you retire.

Rowe Price Retirement Income Calculator and MaxiFi Planner are two of the best tools. It is important to keep in mind that retirement calculators rely on accurate information and realistic assumptions. In other words, if you put garbage in, you get garbage out.

I estimate that you'd be offered $470,000 for a $3,000 monthly pension that is about to start at age 65. (I can only estimate because plans vary in how quickly they adopt interest rate updates.) If you are a 65-year-old nonsmoking female, the pension is worth more like $626,000.

What Is the Average Retirement Income? The average monthly retirement income adjusted for inflation in 2023 is $4,381.25, according to a 2022 U.S. Census Bureau report. The average annual income for adults 65 and older in 2023 is $75,254 – or $83,085 when adjusted for inflation.

At what age is Social Security no longer taxable? Social Security income can be taxable no matter how old you are. It all depends on whether your total combined income exceeds a certain level set for your filing status.

Is it better to take Social Security at 62 or 67? ›

If you delay taking your benefits from your full retirement age up to age 70, your benefit amount will increase. If you start receiving benefits early, your benefits are reduced a small percent for each month before your full retirement age.

In the recent GOBankingRates retirement survey, 56% of Americans said they plan to live on $1,500 a month or less in retirement (aside from housing costs). Yet for many, this is an unrealistically low amount, especially when you consider irregular expenses.

The full retirement age is 66 if you were born from 1943 to 1954. The full retirement age increases gradually if you were born from 1955 to 1960 until it reaches 67. For anyone born 1960 or later, full retirement benefits are payable at age 67. The chart on the next page lists the full retirement age by year of birth.

You can get Social Security retirement benefits and work at the same time. However, if you are younger than full retirement age and make more than the yearly earnings limit, we will reduce your benefits. Starting with the month you reach full retirement age, we will not reduce your benefits no matter how much you earn.

According to recently released data from the SSA's Office of the Actuary, just over 590,000 retired-worker beneficiaries were receiving $1,298.26 per month at age 62, as of December 2023. That compares to about 2.11 million aged 66 retired-worker beneficiaries who were taking home $1,739.92 per month.

The Simple Math to Retirement Equation

It's the inverse of the 4% Rule. 100% divided by 4% is 25. You will need to have 25 times your annual expenses saved to safely withdraw 4% of the balance each year.

Many financial planners use a replacement ratio of 75% of your current salary. To set a target goal for this replacement ratio, a good estimate is to multiply your monthly salary by 200. The total you get is the amount you'd need if you retired today at a 75% replacement ratio.

Here's the starting benefit for each of those same final annual incomes, if you wait until age 70: Final pay of $80,000: benefit of $2,433 monthly, $29,196 yearly.

If your highest 35 years of indexed earnings averaged out to $100,000, your AIME would be roughly $8,333. If you add all three of these numbers together, you would arrive at a PIA of $2,893.11, which equates to about $34,717.32 of Social Security benefits per year at full retirement age.