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WilliamS620760
Contributor ⭐
January 24, 2024

Why did my monthly benefit estimate for when I retire in three years increase from 2023 to 2024?

  • January 24, 2024
  • 11 replies
  • 5219 views

Greetings. I am retired but not yet collecting social security, which I plan to do when I turn 67 in about 4 years. I use some retirement planning models which have you look up you projected benefit amount at age 67 and put them in the model. In 2023, this amount was approximately $3500 on the My Social Security website. I logged on to the site a few days ago and this number is now about $3650 per month. I know there is a COLA for when you are actually collecting social security but I was not expected my project amount to go up. This might not seem like a big different but over more than 20 years it is significant and if this happens again the next three years before I start taking benefits, it would be a relatively large increase that I would want in my retirement planning now. Thanks for any assistance. 

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    11 replies

    GailL1
    January 24, 2024

    2023 data hasn’t been posted yet but this is how people covered under SSA  get their COLA - BEFORE THEY START RECEIVING BENEFITS.

    It is used to figure ones’ benefits.

    The AWI = Average Wage Indes

     

    SSA.gov - National Average Wage Index

     

      WilliamS620760Author
      Contributor ⭐
      January 25, 2024

      Hi Gail - thank you very much for taking the time to response and help; mind boggling to me that this has to be so convoluted! Cheers, Bill 

        StevenC173520
        Contributor ⭐⭐
        January 24, 2024

        You should get your earnings history from SSA, and paste into the ssa.tools website.

        You can look at your PIA details, and see how PIA increases with the yearly COLA

        which is applied in January each year. My PIA has increase a lot since I turned 62 (coming up on 68).

        You can use ssa.tools to look into the future to  see your benefit at 67 (or 70?) if you want.

        No COLA for future benefits at ssa.tools or my ssa. I just get the latest PIA from ssa.tools, then

        multply by an average COLA (2.5%?) for each year until the year I want to collect benefits.

        Dont forget to mutiply the final PIA by your delayed retirement credit for the month you intend to 

        collect. My final DLC at 70 will be 129% of my PIA at 70. HOpe this helps.

          StevenC173520
          Contributor ⭐⭐
          January 24, 2024

          Here are some numbers to show you what I have discovered about this:

           

          YEAR                         COLA        PIA           DRC       MONTH    YR AMOUNT

          2018                    6202,57773.33$1,890$22,680
          2019                    631.0282,64978.33$2,075$24,903
          2020                    641.0162,69284.44$2,273$27,274
          2021                    651.0132,72791.11$2,484$29,810
          2022                    661.0592,88797.78$2,823$33,880
          2022         FRA PIA1.0002,887100$2,887$34,644
          2023                    671.0873,139105.33$3,306$39,671
          2024                    681.0323,239113.33$3,671$44,050
          2025                    691.0253,320121.33$4,028$48,338
          2026                    701.0253,403129.33$4,401$52,813
            StevenC173520
            Contributor ⭐⭐
            January 24, 2024

            One more point. In my speadsheet (of course we all have them!), I have a graph

            that displays the above numbers AND the numbers from myssa. The numbers above keep going up, and the numbers from ssa keep pulling closer to my calculated numbers.

            the 2 lines are right on top of each other, and just diverge slightly for the last 2 years

            because ssa doesn't use future colas. I am very confident that you are going to get a lot more than ssa is telling you today.

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