How Much Would Be My Pension Amount After My Forty Credits While I'm 62

[Keshtopat]

I have worked 10 years from 1994 to 2004 and finished my forty credits as per my social security statment which said that i will get 2200 USD when I retire.....owever when i used the online SS retirement benefit calculator, it shows me just 495.00 USD....what is wrong...

[cbg]

When you asked the Social Security Administration this question, what did they say?

[flyingron]

How do we know? The calculation depends on many items not mentioned here including: how much you made that was subject to SS taxation, when you plan to retire, etc... The disparity could have been that one computed that you may continue working and paying in ...


For ten years $2200 sounds awfully high even if you were putting in the maximum contributions for that duration.

[Janke]

If you only worked a total of 10 years in your lifetime paying Social Security credits, I would say that the calculator is much closer to accurate. The 30 years between age 22 and age 62 that you did NOT work and pay FICA taxes will also be averaged in with the 10 years that you did work bringing your average lifetime earnings down to a very small amount so $495 sounds about right.

If your Social Security Statement (issued in 2005?) has a different amount, it is because it includes an assumption that you will continue to work and wi ll continue to pay FICA taxes at the same rate that you were paying then. So if that is not a valid assumption, then the benefit estimate on the Social Security Statement is not valid.