7 Things You Need to Know About Social Security in Your 50s

Don’t wait to start factoring future benefits into your retirement planning

Andy Markowitz and Deirdre Shesgreen,

Updated May 05, 2026

AARP

Reviewed by

Stephen Richardson

Comments

Updated May 05, 2026

a figure holds back the curtain of a giant social security card

Jon Krause

Key takeaways

Your 50s are often a prime period to boost future benefits, since they are typically your highest-earning years.
When you claim matters: The later you file for retirement benefits, up to age 70, the bigger your monthly payments.
On average, Social Security is designed to replace about 40 percent of your preretirement income, so having other sources of income is key.

You can’t start collecting Social Security retirement payments until you turn 62. But financial planner Andrea Zoeller says it’s a good idea to start thinking about your benefits by your 50s.

"Even if it’s just creating your My Social Security [online account] and taking a look at your earnings history,” says Zoeller, a wealth manager with Merit Financial Advisors, a planning firm with offices nationwide. “Just getting an idea of what those benefits will look like.”

Understanding what Social Security has in store for you — how your benefit is calculated and how your age, job and family status can shape it — will help you figure out what kind of retirement you want, what kind you can afford and what other resources you’ll need to get there.

“Your 50s are when Social Security stops being abstract and starts becoming personal,” says Jammie Lyell, AARP’s program manager for Social Security. “The decisions you make now — how long you work, what you earn and when you plan to claim — can shape your monthly income for the rest of your life.”

Here are seven key things to know about Social Security before you’re of age to collect it.

1. How long you work and how much you make matter.

The Social Security Administration (SSA) calculates your benefit by determining your monthly average income over the 35 highest-earning years of your working life, adjusted to account for historical changes in wages.

You don’t need to have worked 35 years to qualify for retirement benefits — most people do so after about a decade in the workforce. But if you work fewer than 35 years, some years with zero income will figure into the calculation, reducing your benefit amount.

On the other hand, years 36 and beyond could produce bigger future payments if those years are among your most lucrative (as is the case for many workers in their 50s). They will push lower-earning years from early in your work life out of the benefit equation.

“Your next year of employment may very well be offsetting the first year of employment at a significantly lower wage,” notes Kevin Jestice, president of Nationwide Financial Retirement Solutions, a retirement planning firm. “You kind of get a twofer in the calculation."

Holding on to a well-paying job for its own sake may not be the right choice for everyone nearing retirement age, says Zoeller. But it’s important to consider how a late career shift or a move to part-time work could affect not just your present income but your future Social Security payment, she adds.

2. Benefits get bigger the longer you put off taking them.

You can claim retirement benefits as early as age 62, but you only become entitled to your full benefit — 100 percent of the amount calculated from your lifetime earnings — when you reach full retirement age (FRA), which is 67 for people born in 1960 or later.

If you claim before then, Social Security reduces your benefit by a fraction of 1 percent for each month remaining until you reach your FRA. Those fractions add up: If you file when you turn 62, your benefit will be 30 percent lower, and that reduction is locked in for life.

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The flip side is that there’s a bonus for waiting past your full retirement age. For each month beyond FRA that you put off filing, Social Security adds to your eventual benefit amount. By waiting until 70, the age when your benefit maxes out, you’ll get 24 percent more than you would by filing at full retirement age — and 77 percent more than if you had filed at 62.

Deciding when to file may not just be about getting the biggest benefit. Your health or finances might argue for an early start. What’s important is understanding the ramifications so you can make an informed decision when you reach claiming age.

3. You can get a preview of your benefit.

Your Social Security statement, accessible online if you have a My Social Security account, shows your estimated retirement benefit for each claiming year from 62 to 70, based on your past and projected future earnings. You can get similar estimates by plugging your age and income information into AARP’s Social Security Calculator.

These estimates are inexact; they don’t reflect possible swings in your income before you retire, for example, or the positive impact of future cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs). Your eventual benefit may be different. But they do provide a baseline for what you can expect from Social Security.

4. You can help ensure your benefit is accurate.

It’s worth taking the time to verify the SSA’s record of your annual earnings, says Zoeller. She and other financial advisers say their clients have spotted inaccuracies, such as missing years of income or incorrect wage amounts, and those can affect your eventual payment.

The SSA says the most common causes of errors are employers reporting incorrect wage amounts on W-2s filed with the agency or providing the wrong employee name or Social Security number. Failing to report a name change to the agency (for example, if you get married or divorced) can also result in earnings being unattributed or misattributed.

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You can check your earnings record online via your My Social Security account or fill out a form to receive a copy by mail. Review your tax returns and W-2s to see if they match earnings on file with the SSA.

Generally, you have three years, three months and 15 days from the end of the taxable year in which your wages were paid to correct the SSA record, although there are several exceptions. To correct your record, you can:

Request a correction via your online Social Security account.
Submit a request for correction (Form SSA-7008) by mail.
Make an appointment at your local Social Security office.

You will need to provide documentation such as W-2s, tax returns or pay stubs to support your claim.

One more thing: Due to the time it takes the SSA to process income information, the agency recommends waiting until August of the following year to confirm wages for a particular year. For example, to check your 2025 earnings, wait until at least August 2026.

5. You’ll need other sources of income.

Social Security was never intended to fully replace retirees’ work earnings. On average, retirement benefits cover about 40 percent of your past income (the proportion is typically larger for low-income workers and smaller for high earners).

The rule of thumb from financial advisers is that you need to replace around 80 percent of your working income to maintain your lifestyle in retirement. Factoring in expected Social Security income can help you strategize to bridge the gap.

For example, you might step up contributions to an IRA or 401(k) so you’ll have more savings to draw on, or decide you want to work a little longer. These additional income sources can also help you put off filing for Social Security, thus increasing your lifetime benefit.

Building such a “bridge” plan — a nest egg that can get you from retirement to claiming Social Security at 67 or later — should be on the retirement-planning radar for anyone in their 50s, Jestice says.

6. Your retirement benefit might not be your biggest benefit.

If you are married, or were, you could be eligible down the road for benefits on both your own earnings record and that of your mate. That holds true even if the marriage ends due to divorce or death.

Social Security calls this “dual entitlement.” It doesn’t mean you’ll get two benefits combined; the SSA will pay you the higher of the two amounts. That means you could get a spouse, divorced-spouse or survivor benefit rather than your own retirement payment, if your mate is, or was, the higher earner in the house.

Be sure to check your potential eligibility for these family benefits and investigate related claiming strategies as part of your Social Security planning. They could provide paths to higher lifetime benefits and greater financial flexibility in retirement.

7. Social Security isn’t going away — but you might get less from it.

“For folks who are in their 50s … the big elephant in the room is the misconception that Social Security is going away,” says Stuart Ritter, insights director at investment firm T. Rowe Price.

Social Security’s finances do need attention. A $2.7 trillion cash reserve in the trust funds from which benefits are paid is projected to run out in 2034, according to the latest annual report from the program’s trustees. But that’s just the surplus. Social Security would continue to collect the payroll taxes that workers pay into the system each year; that incoming revenue would cover about 80 percent of the promised payments.

Zoeller says her firm factors in a 20 percent reduction to clients’ projected Social Security payments “just to be conservative.” At the same time, she explains to them that Congress has stepped in to shore up Social Security’s financing before, and she believes that’s likely to happen again, before any benefit reductions hit older adults.

“I feel confident that we will see some congressional change, but we do still want to plan conservatively,” she says.

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The key takeaways were created with the assistance of generative AI. An AARP editor reviewed and refined the content for accuracy and clarity.

About the writers

Andy Markowitz is an AARP senior writer and editor covering Social Security and retirement. He is a former editor of the Prague Post and Baltimore City Paper.

Deirdre Shesgreen is an AARP writer and editor covering Social Security. She previously worked as a state news editor for the AARP Bulletin and as a reporter and editor at USA Today, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and other publications.

About the reviewer

Stephen Richardson is a retired New England regional communications director for the Social Security Administration and AARP consultant on Social Security benefit issues. He began his career with the agency in 1982 as a claims representative.