Ideal W2 income to maximize SS Benefits

[VolAgent]

There are calculators that help with this.

My gut reaction is, you want to maximize the taxable SS income for one person, while minimizing it for the other since a spouse can receive a benefit equal to 50% of the higher earning spouse. So each of you bringing home 60k will probably produce less SS income than one of you bringing home 120k and the other 0.

Again, you'll want to use a calculator for this to play around and see how the numbers move. Also if you can both max out SS taxable income, then that is a different discussion as well.

 

[axeman462]

seems to me there are better investments that can produce a lasting income than Social Security...

 

[somarco]

Depends on your age.

I will get back every penny I paid in a few more months. If I live another 5 yrs my ROI will be better than (almost) anything I could have done over the last 53 years.

DC screwed us old farts a few times, including raising the full retirement age. They keep messing with the COLA and decided a few years ago to make SS taxable. There are probably a few more tricks they will pull before the young bucks reach FRA.

I had no choice. Had to pay into the "system". Had a few financial setbacks along the way. Would have been MUCH farther along except sh*t happens.

I never planned on having SS as my sole or primary source of income, but also figured I would have a bigger nest egg than I do.

Fortunately my last business model change (to Medicare only) has created a nice stable (so far) residual that is still growing 15 - 20% per year with little effort.

SS is just "free money" at this point. Another form of residual income I can't outlive. I earned every penny and won't be giving any of it back to DC.