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Old 07-27-2018, 09:06 PM   #21
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Hi vice -
Nice calculator. And welcome to e-r dot org. Please take a moment to introduce yourself on the "Hi, I Am" board. Tell us about yourself. Please also review the Community Rules and familiarize yourself with the posting guidelines.

Again - welcome.
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Old 07-29-2018, 08:01 AM   #22
Confused about dryer sheets
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Perryinva View Post
all future predicted benefits are in todays dollars. Besides manual manipulation, is there a way to figure in an assumed COLA for future dollars?
Note that all official SS calculators are "kinda" in today's dollars, in that they assume zero growth for both wages and price inflation. So if inflation=0, then by definition the output is in today's dollars, because it assumes today's dollars never change.

The official SS detailed calculator (Anypia) will give you the benefit amounts in actual FUTURE dollars IF you enter a non-zero assumption for CPI. So that's one tool you can use for making any assumption about COLA you wish. I'm not sure why anyone would want to know the benefit it terms of a future dollar amount, however. It's the spending power or amount of wage replacement that's important.

Also note that prior to age 62, your benefit is affected by WAGE inflation, and after age 62 it's affected by PRICE inflation. So the concept of "today's dollars" gets tricky if not rigorously defined in the question. Historically, wages have risen faster than prices. So if one assumes zero for both wages and prices when calculating the benefit (as SS online calculator all do), it will underestimate the spending power of your future benefit. This is a problem common to (almost) all free and paid calculators. The SS system is predicting that wages will continue to rise faster than inflation, but does not use those assumptions in their calculations.

Note that the official SS statements available at myssa.gov (the "green" ones) which estimate a future benefit ALSO assume no wage change and no price changes. For those not close to age 62, your benefit estimate will likely be smaller than the actual benefit you will receive (adjusted for inflation). I hope that makes sense.
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Old 07-29-2018, 09:05 AM   #23
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I can't get onto the SS website. They don't believe that I am me. I have gotten statements in the past, the last one a few years ago.
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Old 07-29-2018, 01:39 PM   #24
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Originally Posted by MarieIG View Post
I can't get onto the SS website. They don't believe that I am me. I have gotten statements in the past, the last one a few years ago.

They changed the login requirements in the last year or so. You have to create an online account, change the password periodically, and each time you log in, you'll need a confirmation code that they send by text. All of the instructions are available at ssa.gov, and I assume there's a help #.
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Old 08-21-2018, 12:49 PM   #25
Confused about dryer sheets
 
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Originally Posted by PartIrish View Post
Since you have an online SS account, try this one:

https://socialsecurity.tools/app.html

You copy and paste your earnings data from the SS website and can adjust future years from there. Since you are just pasting your earnings and no other information, and the website doesn't retain any of your earnings information, there is no issue with security.
fyi, a change was made to the socialsecurity.tools page, so that one can now cut/paste any set of years and earnings from other tables or software. E.g. you can create a column of years and column for associated earnings and paste it in. The input no longer needs to come from your own SS statement.

That makes it easy to answer, "but if I HAD worked" X number of years or made Y earnings. One can't change the past, but maybe some are curious. socialsecurity.tolls still does not allow for entering your own specific set of FUTURE earnings however, if future earnings are not all identical without gaps. As far as I know, the tool at doctoredmoney.org is the only free web-based calculator. And of course anypia is great (and free) but cumbersome to play "what if" scenarios with.
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