This information is for educational purposes only — it's not intended to provide specific advice. We don't guarantee the accuracy of the tool and recommend consulting a financial advisor regarding your particular situation.
What does AARP’s Social Security Calculator do?
The calculator provides an estimate of your monthly Social Security retirement benefit, based on your earnings history and age. Our tool also helps you see what percentage of daily expenses your payments can cover and how you can increase your payment by waiting to collect. It can tell you how your Social Security income could be affected if you keep working after you claim your benefit.
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How does the calculator estimate my retirement benefit?
Our simplified estimate is based on two main data points: your age and your average earnings.
Your monthly retirement benefit depends on how much you’ve earned over your lifetime at jobs (including self-employment) for which you paid Social Security taxes. The Social Security Administration (SSA) includes your 35 highest-earning years, adjusted for historical wage growth, in its benefit calculation. You can review your earnings history anytime if you have an online My Social Security account.
Your Social Security benefit also depends on how old you are when you first take it. You can start collecting at the minimum retirement age of 62, but you’ll get a bigger monthly payment if you wait until full retirement age, which is between 66 and 67, depending on your year of birth. (It will settle at 67 for people born in 1960 or later.) If you can wait until 70 to start collecting, you’ll receive your maximum monthly benefit.
A single person born in 1968 who has averaged a $50,000 salary, for example, would get $1,410 a month by retiring at 62, the earliest age to start collecting. The same person would get $2,014 a month by waiting until the full retirement age of 67. And he or she would get $2,497, the maximum benefit on those earnings, by waiting until age 70. Payments don’t increase if you wait to collect past 70.
Social Security FAQs
Your marital status can also be a factor. If you were divorced after at least 10 years of marriage, you may be able to base your Social Security payments on your ex-spouse’s salary. The AARP calculator estimates benefits for single people who have never been married, for married couples and for divorced individuals whose marriage lasted at least 10 years and who have not remarried. Others should use the calculator as if they were single.
If you’re widowed, you may be entitled to survivor benefits. In most cases, you’re eligible if you’re at least 60 years old and were married at least nine months before your spouse died. The calculator does not calculate survivor benefits for widows or widowers. For this and other scenarios, consult the SSA website.
Other factors that could affect the size of your benefit include receiving a pension from a workplace where you did not pay Social Security taxes (as is the case for some state and local government agencies). If you are receiving such a pension but also collect Social Security based on other employment, your benefit payment could be reduced.
Workers who are at least age 62 and who have worked at least 10 combined years at jobs for which they paid Social Security taxes are eligible for Social Security retirement benefits. In many cases, spouses, widows and widowers and divorced people are eligible for benefits based on a current or former spouse’s earnings history. Unmarried children 18 and younger (or older, in some cases, if disabled or still attending secondary school) can also get survivor benefits. You must be a U.S. citizen or immigrant with legal residency status.
Primarily through a payroll tax. The current tax rate for Social Security is 6.2 percent for the employer and 6.2 percent for the employee — 12.4 percent total. If you’re self-employed, you pay the entire amount. The government collects Social Security tax on wages up to $168,600 in 2024.
That’s a question only you can answer. Financial advisers generally recommend starting as late as you can, because you get a larger monthly payment. But the right time for you may depend on other factors besides age, including your health, marital status, how much you spend and how much you have saved.
Consider a future retiree who was born in 1968 and has averaged $50,000 a year in salary. She has $3,000 a month in expenses. If she claimed her benefit at age 62, her estimated Social Security payment of $1,410 per month would cover just 47 percent of them. If she waited till age 70, her estimated check of $2,497 per month would cover 83 percent of her expenses.
Keep in mind that Social Security was never intended to be the sole source of income for retirees. Traditionally, the retirement system in the U.S. has been a three-legged stool: Social Security, pensions and savings. Increasingly, however, employers, especially in the private sector, have moved away from pension plans in favor of tax-deferred retirement savings accounts such as 401(k) plans, increasing the importance of individual savings as a source of late-life income to complement Social Security.
No. SSDI is designed for people who can’t do most work because they have a severe medical condition — one expected to last at least a year or result in death. Your SSDI benefits last only as long as you are prevented from earning a living due to a medical impairment.
SSI is a separate benefit program for people with little or no income or assets who are 65 or older, blind or have disabilities. The maximum monthly federal SSI payment for 2024 is $943 for a single person and $1,415 for a couple (some states add to that), but you may receive less than the maximum if you or your family has other income.
