If you’re younger than full retirement age during all of 2021, we must deduct $1 from your benefits for each $2 you earn above $18,960. 2021, we must deduct $1 from your benefits for each $3 you earn above $50,520 until the month you reach full retirement age.

If you are younger than full retirement age and earn more than the yearly earnings limit, we may reduce your benefit amount. If you are under full retirement age for the entire year, we deduct $1 from your benefit payments for every $2 you earn above the annual limit. For 2021, that limit is $18,960.

Social Security benefits are based on your lifetime earnings. Your actual earnings are adjusted or “indexed” to account for changes in average wages since the year the earnings were received. Then Social Security calculates your average indexed monthly earnings during the 35 years in which you earned the most.

If you exceed the earnings limit, Social Security will hold off on sending your payment for as many months as it takes to “repay” the $1-for-$2 benefit withholding. You lose $1 in benefits for every $2 of work income above that amount. In this case, that’s $3,020 (half of the $6,040 you earned that exceeds the limit).

High Earners As mentioned above, workers making the big bucks pay for only a portion of their income. After their income hits a certain level, their Social Security withholding stops for the year. Officially known as the wage base limit, the threshold changes every year.

$3,895
See: How Does Social Security Get Calculated? While the average retiree receives $1,557 per month in benefits, the maximum you can receive per month is $3,895, as GOBankingRates previously reported. However, how much you receive depends on numerous factors.

What is the maximum Social Security benefit? The most an individual who files a claim for Social Security retirement benefits in 2021 can receive per month is: $3,895 for someone who files at age 70. $3,148 for someone who files at full retirement age (currently 66 and 2 months).

If you’re making $100,000 per year right now, congratulations! You’re roughly tripling the Social Security Administration’s estimated 2019 median annual earnings of $34,248, and doubling the average individual yearly earnings of $51,916 — a figure that’s skewed higher by a handful of super-earners.

Maximum Taxable Earnings Each Year

The Social Security tax limit is the maximum amount of earnings subject to Social Security tax. The Social Security taxable maximum is $142,800 in 2021. Workers pay a 6.2% Social Security tax on their earnings until they reach $142,800 in earnings for the year.

If you’re collecting Social Security but haven’t yet reached FRA and won’t be reaching FRA in 2020, then you can earn up to $18,240 next year without having benefits withheld. This represents a $600 increase from 2019’s earnings test limit of $17,640. Once your earnings exceed $18,240, you’ll have $1 in benefits withheld for every $2 you make.

There is no limit on how many hours you can work on SSI, rather a limit on how much you can make in a month. For an individual in 2019, you need to be making less than $771 of countable income per month and have less than $2,000 in assets to qualify. For a couple, the limit is $3,000.

Everyone who works helps fund Social Security disability benefits. Those who work in the United States pays into Social Security, and a portion of these funds are allocated to Social Security’s disability benefit programs, namely, Social Security Disability Insurance ( SSDI ) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI).

Continuing to work after age 65 can certainly help your retirement finances. You can continue to save for retirement, your existing savings will have more time to grow before you begin withdrawals and the number of retirement years you need to pay for will be shorter.