Plan for Your Future by Boosting Your Social Security Payment

Planning for the future is one of the best investments a person can make in his life. As they say, ‘failing to plan is like planning to fail’. And in today’s economic climate, failure to plan one’s future or retirement have serious consequences. One of the best ways to plan for the future is to pay attention to the Social Security benefits, and grow it whenever possible. There are a number of reasons why retirement planning through Social Security is necessary: it can serve as a buffer for future medical expenses; serve as your steady stream of income when you are out of job and provide you resources for that much-needed retirement. Unfortunately, not everyone is prepared for retirement, and not many knows how the social security payment works. If you are part of the majority who are still curious on how Social Security benefits work, we recommend that you get informed now, and take action while it’s early.

What to expect form your Social Security payment?

When you retire from your day job, you end up with a relaxed schedule but not without your regular stream of income. This is where the Social Security benefits like the Social Security payment comes into the picture. The payment that you receive is your share given monthly, based on your averaged indexed monthly earnings. This means that the amount of payment that you will get after retirement is dependent on your actual monthly earnings now. This average typically sums up to 35 years’ worth of job service and its indexed earnings. The Social Security Agency (SSA) now offers an online calculator that will help you calculate your potential payment, based on existing average monthly earnings.

Follow these steps, Increase your potential payment

If the computed ‘estimated payment’ is low or you simply want to enjoy a higher benefit, then there are ways on how to manage this. With a few steps and professional advancement, one can easily boost the Social Security payment and be rewarded in the future. One of the tested ways to increase payment is to earn more, today. The basis of your payment is the averaged monthly earnings, so if you can earn more, then you increase the chance of enjoying a better retirement. Keep in mind that the computation is based on a 35-year time span. This means that if you work fewer than 35 years, then you will end up with a smaller payment in the future. And corollary to this is to work longer, and maximize your productive potential. For the younger set of workers today, it would be best to work at least 35 years in order to maximize one’s payment after retirement. And if you managed to retire at the age of 65, you can also increase your Social Security payment by ‘delaying ‘the payment up to the age of 70. After retirement, the payment increase by 8 percent annually.