Personal Finance

My Social Security Estimate Says I'm Getting $4,000 a Month. Is That What Most Retirees Get?

Maurie Backman

Published: March 7, 2025 10:37 am

A good number of people are surprised by their Social Security checks in retirement, which is silly given how easy it is to get an estimate of one’s monthly benefit.

All you need to do is create an account on the Social Security Administration’s website and access your earnings statements, which will include an estimate of how much monthly income you can expect down the line.

This Reddit poster, however, has clearly already taken that step. They say that they’re anticipating $4,000 a month from Social Security once they sign up for benefits. But you should know that the typical retiree gets a lot less money from Social Security each month.

What average Social Security benefits look like today

It’s true that some people collect $4,000 a month or more from Social Security. But as of January 2025, the average monthly benefit among retired workers was just $1,979.

Now that’s not a terrible amount of money when combined with other income. But the problem is that many people enter retirement without a notable amount of savings. So for a good number of retirees, their monthly Social Security check is basically all of their income, or the majority of it.

You should also know that to qualify for about $4,000 a month in Social Security, you need to earn a lot of money during your career. If you’re an average earner, you shouldn’t expect a $4,000 benefit. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t ways to grow your monthly benefits.

How to get more Social Security

No matter your age or how much you earn, it’s a good idea to get an estimate of your future Social Security benefit so you have a sense of what’s coming. And if that number isn’t as large as you’d like it to be, you should know that you may have options for boosting it.

One very easy way to get more Social Security is to delay your claim past full retirement age, which is 67 for any person born in 1960 or later.

For each year you wait on Social Security beyond that point, up until you turn 70, your monthly benefits get an 8% boost. And that boost is a permanent one.

Another way to get more Social Security is to increase your earnings during your working years. And if you can’t get more money out of your primary employer, you can turn to the gig economy for extra income. As long as you report your gig wages and pay taxes on them, they’ll count toward your future benefits.

Finally, make sure that Social Security has accurate wage data for you on file. If you look at your earnings statements and notice under-reported income, that’s something you’ll want to flag and work with the agency to correct.

Of course, even with these actions, you may not end up getting $4,000 a month from Social Security during retirement. But you might as well try to get as large a monthly benefit as you can snag.

Even if you have decent savings, Social Security will pay your monthly benefit for life. So the more money you’re eligible for, the more long-term stability you might enjoy.