In determining your retirement benefits from Social Security, as well as those of any dependents who may claim benefits based upon your record, the Primary Insurance Amount, or PIA, is an important factor. The PIA is the amount of benefit that you would receive if you began receiving benefits at exactly your Full Retirement Age, or FRA. (see this article for information about determining your FRA). The PIA is only one of the factors used in determining the actual amount of your retirement benefit – the other factor being the date (or rather your age) when you elect to begin receiving retirement benefits. So, how is PIA calculated? There are several factors that go into the calculation of the PIA. You start off with your Average Indexed Monthly Earnings (AIME – which we defined in this article about the AIME). Then, we take into account the bend points for the […]
Social Security
How Survivor Benefits are Treated
When you’re married to someone who has worked under the Social Security taxation system, you have two different benefits that may be available to you: Survivor Benefits, and Spousal Benefits. These two benefits may be more than the benefit you’ve earned under your own working record. Spousal Benefits are available while your spouse (or ex-spouse) is still alive. Survivor Benefits are available after your spouse’s (or ex-spouse’s) death. Social Security Survivor Benefits are much different from Spousal Benefits in several ways. In fact, there’s very little to compare between the two, other than that they are benefits for the spouse or ex-spouse of someone who earned a Social Security Retirement Benefit. Here are the primary things that you need to know about Survivor Benefits: Survivor Benefits can be claimed as early as age 60. Of course, as with all early claims for benefits, the amount will be reduced if you […]
When Your Birthday Isn’t Your Birthday
(According to the Social Security Administration) There are a couple of circumstances where the Social Security Administration changes your birthdate for you. Chances are if this applies to you, you already know this, but I thought I’d explain it anyhow just so you’ll know what it’s all about. First of the Month If your date of birth is on the first day of the month, then for Social Security purposes, your Birth Month is actually the month prior to your actual date of birth. So if you were born on July 1, according to the Social Security Administration, your Birth Month, and therefore the month that your benefit is based upon (for example, Full Retirement Age), is June. In this example, your Birth Year remains the same, but that’s not always the case… First of January In the case of a date of birth being January 1, your Birth Month […]
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And if you’ve come here to learn about queuing waterfowl, I apologize for the confusion. You may want to discuss your question with Lester, my loyal watchduck and self-proclaimed “advisor’s advisor”.