[biker1]

Yes, good catch. It appears the indexing is to the year you hit 62 and not the year you start benefits. I believe the index factor is 2.42 as you indicated.

Originally Posted by Heyitsrick

Good catch on the ages I used and indexing. However, by my reading, your "3.23" indexing may be incorrect, as well. (I'm rushing this do to "honey do" work on the schedule, lol.)

Here's SSA's primer on indexing (snippet):

"Eligibility and indexing

Wage indexing depends on the year in which a person is first eligible to receive benefits. For retirement, eligibility is at age 62. So if a person reaches age 62 in 2020, then 2020 is the person's year of eligibility.

An individual's earnings are always indexed to the average wage level two years prior to the year of first eligibility. Thus, for a person retiring at age 62 in 2020, the person's earnings would be indexed to the average wage index for 2018."

In my example, I used the age of 75 which would be this year, 2020. Age 62, the first year of eligibility, would be 13 years prior, 2007 (and the person would have been born in 1945). According to SSA, then, the two-years-prior indexing would be indexed to the average wage index for 2005.

So, the index number should be 2.4248, no? But your main point is accurate about factoring in indexing to prior years.


Indexing Factors for Earnings