$16,728 Social Security Bonus—What is it?

How would you really want an extra $16,728 in retirement pay per year? Almost seventeen thousand bucks will buy a ton of things. Holidays, enjoyable meals, peace of mind. 

Best still, that’s government-guaranteed cash – by social insurance. This sort of bonus can be life-changing and is open to millions of Americans – but unfortunately, many don’t even realize they’re entitled to it. 

The $16,728 Social Security Bonus for most retirees is fully overlooked. 

If you’re like most American citizens, you’re a handful of years (or more) behind your retirement money. But a handful of well “Social Security Secrets” could help to raise your income in retirement. For example, a simple trick might pay you as much as $16,728 more per year! When you understand how to optimize your social security benefits, we hope you can withdraw comfortably with the peace of mind that we’re all seeking. 

• You lose a career, or your health prohibits you from employment. 
• You’re in ill shape, or don’t anticipate America’s average life expectancy to survive. 
• You’re retiring early. 
• Your partner is collecting a spousal payment on your job record and has achieved his or her maximum retirement level. 
• You’re intending to keep working beyond the maximum retirement age. 
• You want to earn the highest potential monthly benefit. 
• You’re in excellent shape and/or have a longevity family history. 

3 Tips to Increase Your Social Security Bonus in 2021

Whether or not you’re thinking about seeking Social Security in 2021, the moves you’re making in the coming year might determine how much money you’re actually getting from the program as a senior. If you aim to gain the greatest potential profit, here are three crucial measures to take. 

1. Raise your earnings: the bigger your paycheck in 2021, the higher the monthly Social Security payments will be. Some people believe that social security pays a single, unconditional payout to all the elderly, but that’s not valid. In reality, the incentives are dependent on your personal salary background. The more money you receive at each point of your career, the bigger your bonus would be. 

Of course, next year, you can’t simply step into your boss’s office and lobby for a rise in hopes that it would ultimately result in a higher monthly benefit. Yet you can improve your earnings by finding a job to do on the side. As long as you pay taxes on the money, it may be counted for Social Insurance purposes. 

2. Postpone the application until the complete retirement age: You are entitled to the maximum monthly bonus based on your pay records after you hit the full retirement age or the FRA. FRA is focused on the year that you were born, as follows: 

If you hit the FRA in 2021, you may be inspired to keep collecting the rewards. So, once you quit applying, you’re going to raise the benefits by 8 percent a year, before you reach 70. This rise would then be effective for the remainder of your life, offering you a more lucrative benefit to enjoy. 

3. Delay retirement and work for an additional year: we spoke about how social security payments are dependent on wages. More precisely, these are measured based on the 35 most compensated years in the workforce. If you’re not employed for a complete 35 years, you’re going to get a $0 component on your personal gain equation each year you’re losing your salary. The more $0s you’ve got, the smaller your benefit would be. 

If you’re thinking of retirement in 2021, forcing yourself to work for an additional year might make a big difference if you don’t have a complete 35-year experience of work under your belt. Even if you’ve served for 35 years if you’re making a lot more than you did before in your career, swapping a year of reduced income with a year of higher earnings will further boost your Social Security income. There’s a lot to be theoretically achieved from holding off retirement for a little bit. 

In 2021, you have a real chance to place yourself in a role to make a better monthly Social Security payment. Don’t just pass it up. You’re going to focus on certain incentives to cover expenses or meet your savings ambitions after you exit the job for good. It helps to do whatever you can to make the most generous payday imaginable.

Social Security Bonus Myths Could Sink Your Retirement

1. You can live on your benefits alone: Most people believe that they will fall back on Social Security after their tenure in the workforce is done, but they don’t drive themselves to save. But if you want Social Security to substitute your salary, think differently. In the best-case situation, such incentives would offset around 40% of your former salary if you are an ordinary earner. If that sounds like enough money for you to survive through retirement, you might be all set. But odds are, this isn’t the case. 

Many of the living costs will increase (ahem, health care) or remain the same for retirement. A couple, including transport, may drop because they don’t have to drive every day. Yet much of the time, you can plan to use between 70 to 80 percent of your former salary to keep up with your expenses as a senior, because if you don’t have money outside of Social Security, you’re going to fall drastically short.

2. It doesn’t matter when you file: You are entitled to the full monthly Social Security Bonus (based on your personal income history) after you hit the full retirement age, which varies between 66 and 67 based on the year of birth. You are now required to register for Social Security starting at age 62, which is the most common age to sign up. Or you can postpone filing until the maximum retirement age and raise the payments by 8 percent per year, up to the age of 70. 

What all this implies is that it really does matter when you submit. If you haven’t invested well for retirement, skipping Social Security might only make up for it. Even if you don’t intend to live a long life, it makes sense to register as soon as possible. Either way, put some consideration into it when you sign up because it will have a big effect.

3. Your benefits won’t be subject to taxes: If Social Security is the primary source of retirement compensation, you will be entitled to retain your payments in full. Although if you have some other revenue, the IRS will get any of those advantages. 

To see how you are going to be taxed on Social Security, you would need to sum up your provisional salary, which is your non-Social Security income plus 50% of your annual bonus.