Here Are The Highest, Average and Lowest Monthly Social Security Benefits In 2024

OneEyedDiva

OneEyedDiva

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"Americans who earned lower-income wages while working will naturally get a lower Social Security check once they retire. As of March 2024, the average retirement benefit was $1,864.52 a month, according to the Social Security Administration. The maximum payout for Social Security recipients in 2024 is $4,873 a month, and you can only get that by earning a very high salary over 35 years."

"According to that analysis, the average yearly Social Security benefit is $14,824 for a low earner (those who earn 45% of the average wage) retiring at age 65. That comes out to a monthly average of $1,235 a month — or roughly two-thirds of the average benefit overall."
How Big Is the Average Social Security Check of a Lower-Class Retiree?

@His Dudeness This article makes the same point you made in my 2025 SS COLA thread. :)
 

While it's a complex issue, essentially SS became a "coerced retirement savings" system after the first 20 years or so of recipients passed through it. There is far more to it in reality, but that's the overall idea. So it isn't unexpected that payouts are somewhat proportional to pay-ins.

Exceptions are special interests rolled into the program through the back door. For example, many with kidney issues who get hefty SS payouts with little or no pay-in, instead of being in something like the SSI program.

Understanding Supplemental Security Income (SSI)-- SSI Overview

But somebody else may understand the nuances better than I do.
 
mathjak107 said:
social security was never designed to replace one’s salary or what they live on .

we pay in only enough to cover a piece of our earnings and cover a piece of our costs of living
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This is true. Social Security was never meant to be your only source of income, so I keep working part time. But ever since I started voting back in 1972, there have always been some lawmakers who were against it, and wanted to do away with it. I always thought, how can anyone be against a lifeline for the elderly? Back when I was in my 20's, elderly people would tell me that they were living on a fixed income, and were terrified that some wanted to do away with it. I always wanted it to be there, since I knew that someday I would need it too.
 
actually seniors on ss don’t live on a fixed income . they get colas ..workers who don’t get raises live on a fixed income .

many seniors here live on fixed income investments that are anything but fixed . our bond side of things are all over the map so i really dislike the term fixed income since very wealthy people can live on what we call fixed income sources
 
It is sometimes a bit for people to wrap their heads around things like short and long term capital gains. People struggle with the differences between a Roth and a 401k. Let alone a 403b. When I need to know something I sometimes have to read it multiple times to make sense of it. And then there are the nuances of selling a rental….
 
mathjak107 said:
many workers don’t even get that , so they are the ones really living on a fixed income .

many retirees have incomes that vary with other factors like investments , real estate etc
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I think you mean earn. Worker age people have the option of taking a better job.

But I certainly know working people with limited options, many either in or nearing their "retirement years" already. Some even spent a year more homeless. I have a great deal of empathy for their situation.

But life is not a kindergarten.

The Æsop for Children
The Ants & the Grasshopper

One bright day in late autumn a family of Ants were bustling about in the warm sunshine, drying out the grain they had stored up during the summer, when a starving Grasshopper, his fiddle under his arm, came up and humbly begged for a bite to eat.

"What!" cried the Ants in surprise, "haven't you stored anything away for the winter? What in the world were you doing all last summer?"

"I didn't have time to store up any food," whined the Grasshopper; "I was so busy making music that before I knew it the summer was gone."

The Ants shrugged their shoulders in disgust.

"Making music, were you?" they cried. "Very well; now dance!" And they turned their backs on the Grasshopper and went on with their work.

There's a time for work and a time for play.
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The whining of grasshoppers gets old very quickly. Very well, now dance!
 
when someone says i am a senior living on a fixed income , the term tends to conjure up the vision of an old grandma scrounging thru her change purse trying to come up with enough coins to pay for her groceries .

by the definition some use here most retirees are living on a fixed income , and many have more coming in then when working .

so for many of us i just find the term a bit misleading as to what it’s supposed to conjure up
 
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Paladin1950 said:
there have always been some lawmakers who were against it, and wanted to do away with it. I always thought, how can anyone be against a lifeline for the elderly?
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Yes, that used to confuse me, but during COVID when companies were allowed to not pay their portion of Social Security, that was the first time I realized that employers have to match what the employees pay into Social Security. So since lawmakers get a lot of donations from corporations, it makes sense they would want to save corporations from having to pay that employee benefit.
 
Paladin1950 said:
This is true. Social Security was never meant to be your only source of income, so I keep working part time. But ever since I started voting back in 1972, there have always been some lawmakers who were against it, and wanted to do away with it. I always thought, how can anyone be against a lifeline for the elderly? Back when I was in my 20's, elderly people would tell me that they were living on a fixed income, and were terrified that some wanted to do away with it. I always wanted it to be there, since I knew that someday I would need it too.
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How could they want to do away with it? Because they don't give a damn!! They are not living it and will never have to worry about living it. It's the "I got mine, damn if you don't get yours" mentality which I never understood. They have no idea what it's really like to live in poverty and feel the fate of your livelihood is in some uncaring individuals' hands.
 
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People can be blithely unaware of the desperate, possibly living on the razor's edge, existence of people they interact with in the course of a day.

You might see a counter clerk in a department store, having no idea she's estranged from a 3rd bad marriage she's having trouble getting out of. She might be living in a difficult subletting situation in a basement apartment, the car she drives might not be hers but the husband hasn't yanked it yet. A chunk of her income may be going to the clothes she needs in order to hold onto that job, which doesn't pay well and offers meager leave and benefits at best.

Maybe she's 62 and trying to decide whether to take the cut and start drawing SS early soon, hoping to get a deposit together so she can get into a teeny apartment less subject to damp and beetles and spiders. Perhaps she really needs good orthotics, or dental work, new glasses, or...
 
dilettante said:
People can be blithely unaware of the desperate, possibly living on the razor's edge, existence of people they interact with in the course of a day.

You might see a counter clerk in a department store, having no idea she's estranged from a 3rd bad marriage she's having trouble getting out of. She might be living in a difficult subletting situation in a basement apartment, the car she drives might not be hers but the husband hasn't yanked it yet. A chunk of her income may be going to the clothes she needs in order to hold onto that job, which doesn't pay well and offers meager leave and benefits at best.

Maybe she's 62 and trying to decide whether to take the cut and start drawing SS early soon, hoping to get a deposit together so she can get into a teeny apartment less subject to damp and beetles and spiders. Perhaps she really needs good orthotics, or dental work, new glasses, or...
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All of those scenarios are, sadly, so real D. I've known or read about people in those situations.
 
mathjak107 said:
actually seniors on ss don’t live on a fixed income . they get colas ..workers who don’t get raises live on a fixed income .

many seniors here live on fixed income investments that are anything but fixed . our bond side of things are all over the map so i really dislike the term fixed income since very wealthy people can live on what we call fixed income sources
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The above is true. But, many people can’t handle the truth.
 
I used to complain about the taxes I paid including SS tax, when 401(k) programs were introduced many companies had abandoned company funded retirement programs. I am always surprised to see people with good incomes who didn't save and maxed out their credit in everyway possible. Many of those are the persons struggling to survive now. I know we couldn't live as comfortably living only on SS, but we were thinking of that during our working years. For that reason our standard of living hasn't suffered in retirement. I complain about rising prices but I don't remember when people didn't voice that complaint.
 
TennVet said:
I used to complain about the taxes I paid including SS tax, when 401(k) programs were introduced many companies had abandoned company funded retirement programs. I am always surprised to see people with good incomes who didn't save and maxed out their credit in everyway possible. Many of those are the persons struggling to survive now. I know we couldn't live as comfortably living only on SS, but we were thinking of that during our working years. For that reason our standard of living hasn't suffered in retirement. I complain about rising prices but I don't remember when people didn't voice that complaint.
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I think when people are making good money, they forget that something could happen to interrupt or stop that income flow. They think they'll always be able to afford the lifestyle and spending they've gotten accustomed to and they'll have time to save later. Those people don't realize how fast time goes by and that they'll run out of time to save what they'll need in retirement. And some just plain do not have the sense God gave a turnip green when it comes to money. It's great that you and your S.O. were not victims of that way of thinking.
 

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