How to estimate your Social Security benefits

[McFurd]

USA Today - 3/10/2017 - Dan Caplinger - Get a good idea of what you should expect in retirement from Social Security. Social Security plays a vital role in the retirement planning of nearly every American. Yet it can be hard to guess how much you should expect from Social Security after you retire. By using some simple tools that are available, though, you can estimate how big your Social Security benefits will be when you need them.If you want to know exactly what to expect from Social Security, you'll have to do a lot of legwork. To come up with the number, the Social Security Administration takes your entire work history, indexing your annual earnings for inflation and then choosing the 35 highest-earning years. Then, the SSA adds up those annual earnings for the 35 top years and then finds the average indexed monthly earnings. After you have that number, you'll run it through a formula that differs depending on your age. For example, if you're turning 62 in 2017, then your benefit equals the sum of the following:
90% of the first $885
32% of the amount between $885 and $5,336
15% of the amount above $5,336
Read more @ http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/per ... /98852046/