Finding the right online Social Security calculator can be a daunting task. This is because most are designed to give you an approximate payment at retirement while knowing nothing more than your current age and current compensation. This can be wildly inaccurate if you have not had a normal work history and does not capture “what if” scenarios like a change in future compensation, inflation, early and/or late retirement.
These three free online Social Security calculators do all of that and more and are described in the video above.
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Question: We are in late 50s. Wife and I are same age. My birthday is in March, hers in May. I was higher earner. We both plan to file for benefits at age 62. I’ll retire first.
My FRA is about $2,700. About $1,900 at age 62.
Her FRA is about $1,300. About $900 at age 62.
At FRA (age 67) the difference between her benefit and mine is $1,400, which would be a top off of $700 ($1,400 x 50 percent).
Having trouble estimating her filing on my benefit (spousal). Is it 65 percent of $950 (50 percent x $1,900)? Which is only $618 spousal, so her benefit is higher
Or is it $900 (her benefit) + 65 percent of the $700 FRA top off. This would give her $900 (her benefit) + $455 (65 percent of the FRA top off amount)? That would be $1,355 per month. Is that right?
Any help is very much appreciated.
Earl Foster