Personal Finance

Can You Live on Social Security Alone If You Get the Maximum Monthly Benefit?

Maurie Backman

Published: February 28, 2025 9:12 am

The typical retired worker on Social Security today gets about $1,979 per month. That’s not a bad payday at all when you combine it with other income sources, like withdrawals from an IRA or 401(k) plan.

But on its own, a benefit of just under $2,000 doesn’t give you a lot of spending power. And if you were to retire on just a roughly $2,000 monthly Social Security benefit, your senior years may not be that enjoyable.

But what if you’re eligible for Social Security’s maximum monthly benefit? This year, it amounts to $5,108, which is worlds away from $1,979.

The reality is that a lot of people would be able to live comfortably on $5,108 a month. But there’s more to the story than that.

How to get Social Security’s maximum monthly benefit

To collect $5,108 from Social Security this year, you need to meet three criteria.

First, you need at least a 35-year work history. Secondly, you need to have earned a high income during those 35 years. And third, you need to have waited until age 70 to claim Social Security, since it takes delayed retirement credits to score a $5,108 monthly payday.

The reason most people don’t collect anywhere close to $5,108 from Social Security is that they don’t have career wages that are high enough to give them that sort of benefit.

It’s not so unusual to have 35 years of work under your belt. And it’s also not impossible to delay Social Security until age 70. It’s the earnings part that makes $5,108 hard to get.

Will you be happy living on Social Security’s maximum benefit alone?

If you were a moderate earner throughout your career, then you might do just fine living on just Social Security in retirement if you’re eligible for $5,108 per month. But here’s the thing. If you were a moderate earner, you’re probably not going to get $5,108 per month due to not having high enough earnings.

Rather, the people who are going to be eligible for Social Security’s highest monthly benefit are people who earned a lot during their working years. And if that’s the case, and you’re used to a high salary, then you may not be happy with roughly $61,000 a year in Social Security come retirement.

That may be a nice annual income for people who earned $75,000 or $80,000 a year while they were working. But it’s a big pay cut for people who are used to earning $180,000, for example.

That’s why you really shouldn’t plan to live on Social Security alone as a retiree, even if you’re confident you’ll be able to collect the maximum monthly benefit the program will pay out. And if you’re in line for that benefit, it means your salary is, at the very least, decent. That should, in theory, afford you the opportunity to sock some amount of money away in an IRA or 401(k) so you’re able to supplement your Social Security with a nest egg you’ve built yourself.