Social Security: 10 Smart Ways to Get More Benefits

Author and speaker Zig Ziglar reportedly once quipped, "If you want to earn more, learn more." That's often true for our careers, as adding certifications or degrees or skills to our resume can make us more marketable. It's true for lots of things, too -- even Social Security.

The more you know about Social Security, the more you'll likely be able to get out of the program. Here, for example, are 10 ways to make your benefit checks bigger:

1. Check your Social Security work record for errors
2. Work for more years -- at least 35
3. Beef up your earnings record
4. Wait until age 70 to start collecting benefits
5. Start collecting benefits as early as age 62
6. Take advantage of spousal benefits
7. Consider delaying your divorce
8. Don't earn too much while collecting benefits
9. See if you qualify for survivor or disability benefits
10. Be strategic -- especially with your spouse

Let's look at each of these more closely.

1. Check your Social Security work record for errors

Let's start at the source. The Social Security Administration (SSA) maintains records of our earnings and uses its formulas to determine our eventual benefits. If its record of your earnings is wrong, though, you might end up receiving less than you're entitled to. Head over to the my Social Security page at the SSA.gov website and set up an account. Then you'll be able to see the SSA's record of your earnings history. If you spot errors, contact the SSA to have them fixed. Your account there will also let you see estimates of your future benefits, which can help in your retirement planning.

Image source: Getty Images.

2. Work for more years -- at least 35

The formula that the SSA uses to calculate your benefits is based on your earnings in the 35 years in which you earned the most -- adjusted for inflation, of course. So if you're on track to work for just 28 years and then retire, know that the SSA will be inserting seven zeroes into the formula, resulting in lower benefits for you. If you can work a few more years, you'll be able to meaningfully increase your benefits.

3. Beef up your earnings record

If you can beef up your earnings record, you can get bigger benefit checks. You might aim to earn more in the years to come by changing jobs or careers or simply moving up the ladder more briskly, perhaps via adding more certifications or skills, to make yourself more valuable. Also, once you've worked for 35 years, if you're earning a lot more than you used to on an inflation-adjusted basis, you might work a few more years, because that will allow you to replace some years of low earnings with some higher-earning ones.

4. Wait until age 70 to start collecting benefits

Procrastination isn't usually a good thing, but if you can put off starting to collect your Social Security benefits, you can make them bigger. We each have a "full retirement age," at which we are entitled to receive the full benefits that we've earned based on our work record. For most of us, it's 66 or 67. For each year past that age that you delay starting to collect, your benefits increase by about 8%. So delaying from 67 to 70 will get you checks that are 24% bigger. There are no more increases after age 70, so you might as well start collecting then.

The table below shows how much bigger (or smaller) your Social Security benefit checks will be depending on when you start collecting:

Source: Social Security Administration. 

5. Start collecting benefits as early as age 62

The table above shows how much smaller your checks will be if you start collecting early -- and you can start collecting regular retirement benefits as early as age 62. It might seem dumb to start early and get smaller checks, but remember that:

• You might simply need the income early, perhaps due to an unexpected job loss.
• While the checks will be smaller, there will be many more of them.
• The system is designed so that for those who live average-length lives, they'll get about the same total benefits no matter when they start collecting.

If you think you stand a decent chance of living a shorter-than-average life due to poor health or family history, it can make good sense to start collecting early -- you'll get more out of the program that way.

6. Take advantage of spousal benefits

You might assume that you're out of luck regarding Social Security benefits if you don't have a sufficient work history to qualify for benefits -- perhaps because you were a homemaker for most of your life. Well, meet the "spousal benefit." The Social Security rules allow you to collect a benefit based on your spouse's earnings record. You can receive up to 50% of your spouse's benefits.

7. Consider delaying your divorce

Speaking of spouses, you may even be able to collect benefits based on your former spouse's earnings record -- as long as you qualify per the rules. For example, you need to have been married for at least 10 years. So if you're planning to divorce your spouse and you've been married, say, nine years -- and if your soon-to-be ex-spouse has a significantly higher earnings history than you do -- consider delaying the divorce for another year, if that seems like something you can do. (It won't make sense for some people, but for others it might.) For some folks, this is a good way to collect bigger benefit checks.

8. Don't earn too much while collecting benefits

Next, know that if you work and earn more than a certain amount while collecting Social Security benefits, some of those benefit dollars will be withheld. According to the Social Security Administration:

If you're younger than full retirement age during all of 2020, we must deduct $1 from your benefits for each $2 you earn above $18,240. If you reach full retirement age during 2020, we must deduct $1 from your benefits for each $3 you earn above $48,600 until the month you reach full retirement age.

It's not as bad as it seems, though, because any dollars withheld are factored back into your future benefits, increasing them accordingly.

9. See if you qualify for survivor or disability benefits

Not only are there Social Security benefits for spouses and ex-spouses, but there are also benefits for the disabled and survivors. There are disability benefits available to people of all ages who qualify via two programs: Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI), which differ in whom they're meant to help and what they offer. Meanwhile, if your spouse dies after working enough to qualify for Social Security benefits, you -- and possibly your children, as well (through age 17) -- may be able to collect survivor benefits based on the deceased's earnings history.

10. Be strategic -- especially with your spouse

Some of the ideas above involve strategizing, such as working more to bolster your earnings record and deciding when to start collecting benefits. But a little more research and learning about Social Security can yield even more ways to increase your benefits.

Coordinating with your spouse is a good example: If your spouse has a much stronger earnings history than you, he or she might try to delay starting to collect until age 70 in order to maximize the size of the checks, while you claim your benefits early or on time, just to start getting more income for your household. This can be an effective strategy because if your spouse dies before you, you're allowed to collect either your own benefit checks or theirs -- whichever is larger -- and your spouse's checks will have been plumped up as much as possible.

The more you know about Social Security, the more you may be able to get out of the program. Remember -- the more you learn, the more you earn.