Retirement was never intended to be the entirety of a retired person’s income. In fact, in many countries, retirement covers between 80% and 60% of a person’s last income when he or she was working. That’s why planning when it comes to retirement is important, since you will see a decrease or a reduction in your income when retirement begins to replace your salary.
A handful of select retirees in the United States are collecting the maximum amount of $4,872 per month. But not everyone can access this amount of money, since three basic requirements must be met.
I’m going to tell you what are the three basic requirements to get to collect that juicy check that will help you have a better quality of life in your golden years.
Three Long-Term Strategies to Claim $4,873 Checks From Social Security
The first of these requirements is to have a good income, since Social Security counts the best 35 years of your income to calculate how much you deserve benefits. You must make sure that you have registered each one of the monthly contributions of the 35 years entered, because for each year or month that is not reported, $0 will be calculated. This pushes the average down, affecting how much money you will receive per month when you retire.
The second requirement is to have a good salary for 35 years. To claim the maximum monthly Social Security benefit, you must have 35 years of income in which the salary is equal to the salary limit or more. This limit changes year by year and in 2024 it is $168,800.
Anyway, this number may sound like a gigantic and difficult number to reach for an average person or an average worker within the United States. If you’re a worker with a 40-year career and an average annual salary of about $80,000, don’t expect to reach that maximum monthly benefit.
The last and most important of the requirements is to delay your social Security claim as long as possible. It is true that you are entitled to receive your social Security benefits from the moment you reach your Full Retirement Age (FRA). Some people retire from the age of 62, but others wait until the age of 66 or 67, depending on their year of birth.
Delay Your Retirement as Much as Possible And Boost Your Payment Check
While it may seem attractive to receive the social Security benefit as soon as possible and stop working, if you wait until age 70 and meet the other two requirements, you will enjoy a juicy monthly check of $4,873 for the rest of your life.
Some people supplement their retirement with other private retirement plans, such as an IRA or a 401(k). These plans offer important advantages. We highlight the advantage of the 401k, which can be an employer-sponsored retirement plan. In many cases and depending on the company you work for, you can contribute an amount per month to this plan and your employer will contribute an additional amount to swell your retirement savings portfolio.
In the long term, you will see these benefits grow by hundreds of thousands of dollars, but you have to be patient and wait until full retirement age, or if possible, until 70 years old as experts recommend for you to be able to claim a more solid retirement.