Social Security Calculator Question...

[CindyBlue]

I'm sorry if this has question has been answered before - I did a search and cannot find it if it was.
I'm trying to estimate my SS benefit if I stop work at age 64 but don't collect until full retirement age at 66 and 2 months. I've tried the Social Security Retirement Estimator at the SS website, but I can't seem to get it to do $0 earnings from now until FRA. It will tell me my earnings if I take it now, but it says "At FRA earning (my earnings now) from now until full retirement." I need it to say ""At FRA earning (0) from now until full retirement." Anyone know how I can get this estimate?

[REWahoo]

The impact to your SS benefits for those two years of 0 earnings will be very small, probably in the $10 per month range.

You should be able to confirm this by using this calculator, entering 0 for the last two years: https://www.ssa.gov/OACT/anypia/anypia.html

[CindyBlue]

Quote:

Originally Posted by REWahoo The impact to your SS benefits for those two years of 0 earnings will be very small, probably in the $10 per month range. You should be able to confirm this by using this calculator, entering 0 for the last two years: https://www.ssa.gov/OACT/anypia/anypia.html

Thank you! I tried to download the calculator you suggested, but it says it won't work for my Mac...sigh...any other calculators that you know about?

[pb4uski]

There is a worksheet on the SSA website that you can easily use as a template guide to create a spreadsheet to do the calculation.

[CindyBlue]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pb4uski There is a worksheet on the SSA website that you can easily use as a template guide to create a spreadsheet to do the calculation.

Thank you...I'm not very good at creating spreadsheets (I know, I should learn) but I'll take a look. I was hoping for something for the tech impaired...

[erkevin]

Did you try this calculator? Doesn't need to be downloaded

https://www.ssa.gov/planners/retire/AnypiaApplet.html

[mountainsoft]

Quote:

Originally Posted by CindyBlue I'm trying to estimate my SS benefit if I stop work at age 64 but don't collect until full retirement age at 66 and 2 months.

I'm not positive, but I think you can do that with this tool:
https://socialsecurity.tools/app.html

You'll have to log in to your MySocialSecurity account to get your earnings record, then copy the data into the program. It's all online so it should work with your Mac.

[MarieIG]

Quote:

Originally Posted by REWahoo The impact to your SS benefits for those two years of 0 earnings will be very small, probably in the $10 per month range. You should be able to confirm this by using this calculator, entering 0 for the last two years: https://www.ssa.gov/OACT/anypia/anypia.html

I just tried this one and it worked for me. I did notice that it had different links on the page.

[REWahoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by erkevin Did you try this calculator? Doesn't need to be downloaded https://www.ssa.gov/planners/retire/AnypiaApplet.html

^ Excellent. This is what I thought I'd provided a link to earlier rather than the download required calculator that I actually linked.

Cindy, once you run this please let us know how much per month those two years will cost you in lost benefits. I'd like to know how close my estimate was.

[CindyBlue]

Quote:

Originally Posted by erkevin Did you try this calculator? Doesn't need to be downloaded https://www.ssa.gov/planners/retire/AnypiaApplet.html

This looks like it might do the job...I don't suppose there's a way to transport 45 years worth of earnings into that chart so I don't have to type in all those numbers, is there

[CindyBlue]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mountainsoft I'm not positive, but I think you can do that with this tool: https://socialsecurity.tools/app.html You'll have to log in to your MySocialSecurity account to get your earnings record, then copy the data into the program. It's all online so it should work with your Mac.

I'm not good at this, sorry to have to ask...but how do I copy my data so I can get it into the program?

[MarieIG]

My DH is going to try now.

[CindyBlue]

Thank you everyone! I'm going to try them all...back soon...!!!

[erkevin]

Unfortunately, the link I provided does require you to manually enter every year's income.

[CindyBlue]

I've found my earnings on the SS website...how do I copy them into the estimator without having type in each year individually?

[CindyBlue]

Bummer...sigh...

[ransil]

I could not get the ssa site one to work.
Try this one

https://socialsecurity.tools/app.html

You can open the pdf of earnings from ssa site and paste them in.

[REWahoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by CindyBlue Bummer...sigh...

Look on the bright side - this is something you'll probably need to do only once, then you'll have your answer!

[mountainsoft]

Quote:

Originally Posted by CindyBlue I'm not good at this, sorry to have to ask...but how do I copy my data so I can get it into the program?

There are good instructions on the page itself:
https://socialsecurity.tools/app.html

Basically, you log in to your social security account and go to the earnings record. Then you highlight all of that data and copy it to the clipboard.

Then go back to the app page above and paste the data you copied from the social security web site (into the box in step 4).

[CindyBlue]

Thank you! I tried it, but again can't get it to state my SS income if I stop working at 64 but don't claim until 66 and 2 months (FRA.) It keeps giving me what I'd get if I collected at 64, I think. Am I missing something?