15 Ways to Maximize Your Social Security Payments

Social Security income is likely to be very important to you in your retirement. Indeed, it provides about 30% of the income of older Americans -- and for certain millions, more than 90% of it. So don't leave the size of your future benefit checks up to chance. There are ways to beef up those payments. Here are a bunch of them -- see which ones you can act on.

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First, before even thinking about increasing the size of your checks, make sure you qualify for benefits in the first place! Fortunately, qualifying is not difficult at all, for most people. You simply have to accumulate 40 quarterly "credits" over your working years -- which most people can do in 10 years. The value of a credit changes from year to year, and for 2022, it's $1,510 (or $6,040 over the course of a year). So if you earn at least $1,510 in each quarter of 2022, you'll be 10% of the way to being eligible to receive benefits.

While 10 years of work is the minimum for Social Security benefits, if that's all you work, you won't end up with much in your retirement years. So consider 35 years a much better minimum. The formula for determining your benefits averages your earnings in the 35 years in which you earned the most -- and, of course, it adjusts them for inflation, to keep your 2008 earnings comparable to your 2021 earnings. If you only work for, say, 28 years, there will be seven zeroes factored into the calculation, and that will put a damper on your benefits.

Even better than having 35 years of income is having more -- for many people. Here's why: If you're earning a lot more these days (on an inflation-adjusted basis) than you have earned in the past, if you work for a few more than 35 years, each high-earning year will kick out your lowest-earning year. That will result in fatter benefit checks.

ALSO READ: Planning to Retire in 2022: A Complete Guide

The more you earn, the bigger your Social Security checks will be -- up to certain limits. For example, Social Security's maximum monthly retirement benefit was recently $4,194 -- or about $50,000 annually. To collect that, you would have had to have earned the maximum in each of the 35 years that factor into your benefits. The maximum is adjusted for inflation regularly, and for 2022, it's $147,000. So think about how you might boost your income in this year and following years, as that can give your Social Security checks a permanent boost.

If you want to beef up your future Social Security checks, you'll want to learn what your full retirement age is. It's the age at which you can start collecting the full benefits to which you're entitled, based on your earnings history. For most of us these days, it's 66 or 67 (or somewhere in between), and it's based on when you were born.

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Knowing your full retirement age is important for your retirement planning and, specifically, for your Social Security planning. You can start collecting your benefit checks as early as age 62 and as late as age 70, but it's at your full retirement age that you'll get to collect your full benefits. Read on, though, to see what happens if you claim your benefits early or late.

For every year beyond your full retirement age that you delay starting to collect your benefits, they'll increase by about 8%. So delay from age 67 to 70, and you can increase those checks by some 24% -- enough to turn a $2,000 check into a $2,480. That will be a permanent increase, and it can serve you very well in the long run.

ALSO READ: 3 Reasons You're Better Off Claiming Social Security at 70

While delaying starting to collect your benefits is a great way to make your checks significantly bigger, it's still not the best move for everyone. Remember, after all, that while your checks will be bigger, you'll collect far fewer of them. Collecting late generally only pays off if you live a longer-than-average life. If you're not in great health, or many relatives have died young, starting to collect early may be your best move.

If you've never earned much -- and perhaps you haven't even earned the necessary 40 credits to qualify for any Social Security benefits of your own -- you're not totally out of luck. You may still claim a spousal Social Security benefit of up to 50% of your spouse's full benefits (those available at their full retirement age). Read up on the rules first, though -- for example, you can't claim a spousal benefit until your spouse has claimed his or hers.

I Can't Believe This $17,166 Social Security Bonus Was So Easy Uncover a handful of little-known "Social Security secrets"... including a simple process that removes the guesswork and makes it easy to earn as much as $17,166 in additional benefits every year. Click here to get access to information on how you can uncover this lucrative strategy and even more insider information you won't want to miss.

You can lose a lot of things in a divorce, but Social Security benefits may not be among them. If your ex was the one with a much higher earnings history -- perhaps because you stayed at home for many years to take care of kids -- you may have been counting on his or her Social Security benefits for your retirement years. You won't necessarily lose all that. If you were married for at least 10 years and you haven't remarried (even if your ex has), you may be able to claim a spousal benefit based on your ex's earnings.

ALSO READ: Will Your Divorce Leave You With Less Social Security Income?

The Social Security program includes not just the retirement benefits that most people associate it with but also disability benefits. In fact, there are two disability programs, Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI), and each has its own rules and benefits. To claim disability benefits, you'll have to qualify as disabled in the eyes of the Social Security Administration. Among other things, your disability should be a long-term one (or one expected to lead to your death), and one that keeps you from being able to do basic activities or perform work for which you're qualified.

ALSO READ: Social Security Disability: What You Need to Know

Social Security also offers benefits to survivors of workers who had qualified for benefits via their earnings history. These can be paid not only to a widow or widower but also to qualifying children and even, in some cases, grandchildren and ex-spouses. The rules can be a bit tricky, but surviving spouses may collect up to 100% of their spouse's benefits and qualifying children may receive up to 75%.

ALSO READ: Everything You Need to Know About Social Security Survivors Benefits

To keep your benefit checks as large as they can be, you may want to rein in your income, if you're working while collecting benefits. Earn too much, and your benefit checks may shrink. The Social Security Administration (SSA) explains: "If you are younger than full retirement age and earn more than the yearly earnings limit [which is $19,560 for 2022], we may reduce your benefit amount. If you are under full retirement age for the entire year, we deduct $1 from your benefit payments for every $2 you earn above the annual limit. … In the year you reach full retirement age, we deduct $1 in benefits for every $3 you earn above [$51,960]." If you have some benefits withheld, don't worry too much -- because you'll get them back later. As the SSA notes, when you reach full retirement age, "We will recalculate your benefit amount to give you credit for the months we reduced or withheld benefits due to your excess earnings."

ALSO READ: Can I Work While on Social Security?

Another way to maximize your benefits is to avoid taxation when possible. That's right -- Social Security benefits can be taxed. If you earn more than a specified amount, up to 85% of your benefits can face taxation. (That's not a tax rate of 85% -- just that up to 85% of the benefits can be taxed.) That's just at the federal level. When it comes to state levels, 37 states don't tax Social Security, but some do, though even those often don't hit too hard.

ALSO READ: 37 States That Don't Tax Social Security Benefits

Finally, a last way to get bigger Social Security benefit checks takes no effort or strategy at all on your part -- simply enjoy cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) that are made in most years, increasing everyone's benefits by a little or sometimes a lot. Inflation has reared its head significantly lately, and the last COLA was 5.9%. These COLA raises aren't as great as they seem, though, because they rely on a measure of inflation that underweights healthcare and housing costs, which can be hefty for retired people.

I Can't Believe This $17,166 Social Security Bonus Was So Easy Uncover a handful of little-known "Social Security secrets"... including a simple process that removes the guesswork and makes it easy to earn as much as $17,166 in additional benefits every year. Click here to get access to information on how you can uncover this lucrative strategy and even more insider information you won't want to miss.

Clearly, there are many ways that you can beef up the vital Social Security benefit checks that you'll be getting in the future. See which of these strategies make sense for you. The more you know about Social Security, the more you can get out of it.

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