Determine Your Future Social Security Benefits

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Great article, however most SS calculators assume you have worked a full career and participated right up to the standard retirement age. What about those people who enter the workforce later in life and do not work until age 65/66? How are those benefits calculated? For example, enter the workforce at age 40, work till age 60 as a high income earner making the maximum contribution.
Are there any SS benefit calculators that can deal with this kind of situation?

Doug McLeod of WI 12:33PM April 07, 2010

It would be interesting to put estimates of amount of money put into the system by the employee/employer for the values shown in the retirement table.
Someone making $60k/yr pumps 3x as much money into the system as someone making $20k/yr and only gets 2x the retirement benefit. The current max is $106.8k/yr, so those folks put in >5x than those making $20k/yr and get 2.5x the retirement benefit. Likewise, someone at the max puts in >2x that of someone making $50k/yr and they get about 1.4x the retirement benefit.
I suspect the breakpoints and multipliers are going to get even more skewed over time. Would be interesting to see the estimated values in the table if/when the cap comes off SS max.

Dean of NM 11:37AM April 07, 2010

Yep, our combined social security(if it still pays out) and small pensions will exceed our current living expenses. We just won't saving the other 40% of our current income in our IRA's, 401k and savings like we do now.

tom of WI 7:26AM April 07, 2010

It is true that the new Health Care legislation will not directly effect your Social Security income. The proposed $599 billion is supposed to come from reducing "waste and fraud" currently related to Medicare. If you believe that Congress is going to actually reduce Medicare by that much I have a bridge I would like to sell you. Most likely scenario? Further increases in FICA and Medicare tax rates and ceilings (already in the new law for top earners) and changes in the retirement age for future retirees. Also likely...stricter limits/higher taxes on non-Social Security income after retirement. Let's face it, regardless of what you may think of the new health care law, everyone with an ounce of common sense knows that somebody has to pay more. The debate is how soon and who.

Burt Widener of NH 1:50PM March 31, 2010