How much income will your Social Security benefits provide for you? This is an important question every future retiree should know the answer to, because the amount may not be as high as you’d think.
In fact, if you take a look at average benefits by age, you’ll probably be surprised by just how much money the typical senior is collecting on a monthly basis from the Social Security Administration.
Here’s the average benefit from age 62 to 70
The table below shows the average Social Security benefit for retirees between the ages of 62 and 70, based on data from the Social Security Administration.
| Age | Average benefit | Age | Average benefit | Age | Average benefit | Age | Average benefit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 62 | $1,424.40 | 72 | $2,205.21 | 82 | $2,098.76 | 92 | $1,899.20 |
| 63 | $1,435.81 | 73 | $2,207.96 | 83 | $2,102.12 | 93 | $1,920.13 |
| 64 | $1,478.00 | 74 | $2,178.87 | 84 | $2,101.26 | 94 | $1,907.78 |
| 65 | $1,607.27 | 75 | $2,144.88 | 85 | $2,077.11 | 95 | $1,890.03 |
| 66 | $1,807.28 | 76 | $2,157.21 | 86 | $2,036.62 | 96 | $1,889.08 |
| 67 | $2,016.48 | 77 | $2,170.80 | 87 | $2,015.54 | 97 | $1,891.21 |
| 68 | $2,052.64 | 78 | $2,140.16 | 88 | $1,983.29 | 98 | $1,887.57 |
| 69 | $2,096.95 | 79 | $2,155.77 | 89 | $1,925.36 | 99+ | $1,845.00 |
| 70 | $2,274.68 | 80 | $2,106.29 | 90 | $1,898.34 | ||
| 71 | $2,247.76 | 81 | $2,099.82 | 91 | $1,894.74 |
As you can see, the average benefit fluctuates by age, with younger retirees getting smaller average benefits. That’s because early claims result in benefit reductions that affect you for the rest of your retirement. Early filing penalties can shrink your benefits by 30% if you claim at 62 when your full retirement age is 67, so, understandably, average benefits are much smaller at that age.
The other important thing to note, though, is that none of these average benefits will provide a ton of income. In fact, even the peak average benefit of $2,274.68 would only provide around $27,296.16 in annual income for a retiree to live on. That’s not a lot of money once you consider the fact that many seniors have expensive medical bills to cover because the effects of aging typically mean people need more care as they get older.
You need savings to supplement your Social Security
These average benefit numbers make one thing abundantly clear. You cannot comfortably live on Social Security by itself as your sole income source. If you do, you will probably struggle to pay for your routine costs and almost definitely won’t have any money left over to actually enjoy your retirement.
If you don’t want to spend your senior years struggling to pay the bills, start saving as early as you can. Social Security is intended to replace about 40% of the pre-retirement income you were earning. Since the general consensus among experts is that somewhere around 70% to 80% is the minimum you’ll need to replace to avoid a decline in living quality, aim to save enough that your investments can replace the other 30% to 40% of your income.
Of course, these benefits are just the averages, and some people will have higher benefits. The reality, though, is that even if you do have a Social Security check that beats the average, the reason you have this bigger benefit is that your salary was above average throughout your career. This means you’re still going to need plenty of savings to supplement benefits. Even if your Social Security check seems high in theory, it’s going to be low relative to the income you’re used to earning.
You’ll want to set detailed retirement goals and work toward them to make sure you have enough for a comfortable retirement, and a financial advisor can help you do that if you aren’t sure about the best approach.
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