Retirees With the Biggest Social Security Checks Have These 3 Things in Common

Social Security's maximum benefit will reach a record $5,108 per month in 2025. Those lucky enough to take home these checks will have roughly $62,000 to spend, plus whatever they've managed to save for retirement on their own. It's a far cry from the $1,976 monthly benefit the average retiree can expect from Social Security next year.

You might already know that the reason some people get so much more from Social Security than others has to do with their income throughout their career. But that's not the only factor. Those with the largest Social Security checks all tick the following three boxes.

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1. They worked at least 35 years before retiring

The Social Security Administration bases your benefit on your average monthly income during your 35 highest-earning years, adjusted for inflation. This is known as your average indexed monthly earnings (AIME).

You only need 10 years of work history to qualify for benefits, but the wealthiest Social Security beneficiaries know to aim for 35 years. If you apply for benefits with a shorter work history, the Social Security Administration includes zero-income years in your benefit calculation.

Even one of these drastically reduces your monthly checks. Say you earned $60,000 per year, adjusted for inflation, for 35 years. Your monthly benefit based on the current Social Security formula would be about $2,281 per month. But if you had one zero-income year factored in, you'd only get $2,235 per month. That's $46 less per month for the rest of your life. Over 20 years, that could cost you more than $11,000.

2. They have above-average incomes

This requirement is the reason that most of us will never receive anything close to the maximum Social Security benefit. Higher incomes throughout your career mean more money paid into Social Security, and that entitles you to receive larger benefit checks later.

To claim the maximum Social Security benefit, you must have earned the equivalent of $168,600 in 2024 dollars or more in all 35 of your highest-earning years. This ceiling on Social Security taxes will rise to $176,100 in 2025.

If you're lucky enough to make this much, anything over the above limits won't boost your Social Security benefits because you don't pay Social Security payroll taxes on it. However, you can still use it to increase your retirement readiness by stashing it in a retirement account or a taxable brokerage account.

3. They delay claiming until age 70

You become eligible for Social Security at 62 and can claim benefits at any age past that point. Every month you delay benefits increases your checks, and the more time goes by, the larger these monthly increases become.

How quickly your benefits grow depends on your current age and your full retirement age (FRA). The table below gives you an idea of how quickly your checks increase:

Data source: Social Security Administration.

You qualify for your maximum benefit at 70. That's 124% of your full benefit per check if your FRA is 67 or 132% if your FRA is 66. Claiming then can substantially increase your lifetime Social Security benefit, but you usually have to live until your mid-80s at least to make this worthwhile.

Those with shorter life expectancies and those with few other financial resources are often better off claiming early. Those with short life expectancies risk getting nothing from Social Security if they die before they're able to claim. And those without much personal savings may need to claim Social Security early to avoid falling into debt, even if doing so reduces their lifetime benefit.

While it would be nice to take home the largest Social Security checks, it's not realistic for most of us. However, you can still leverage the information above to grow your own benefit as much as possible.

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