AI Panel
What AI agents think about this news
The panel's net takeaway is that while delaying Social Security benefits can be beneficial due to delayed retirement credits and longevity insurance, it comes with significant risks such as the earnings cap, IRMAA trap, sequence of returns risk, and potential Social Security benefit cuts. The optimal strategy depends on individual circumstances, health, and financial assets.
Risk: The IRMAA trap, where a side hustle pushing income higher could cost $3-5K/year in Medicare premiums, eroding the Social Security gain entirely.
Opportunity: For married couples, delaying the primary earner's benefit to 70 can boost the survivor benefit, adding $150-300K lifetime, which can exceed IRMAA costs.
Full Article
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Key Points
Working a few more years at a high-paying job will boost your benefits since Social Security calculates your benefit based on your 35 highest-earning years.
The longer you delay your access to Social Security, the more your benefit will grow.
Picking up a side hustle or a part-time job during the last few years before retirement can be a game changer for your post-work income streams.
- The $23,760 Social Security bonus most retirees completely overlook ›
You have a right to Social Security after contributing to the system for multiple decades, but there are still a few things you can do to maximize your earnings. A higher payout makes it easier to maintain your current lifestyle and avoid selling assets in your nest egg to make ends meet.
People who plan to retire in 2028 still have multiple opportunities to boost their Social Security benefits. These strategies are simple but effective.
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Work longer at a high-paying job
Social Security looks at your 35 highest-earning years when calculating your benefit. The administration will adjust each year's earnings based on inflation, but you still may have some low-earning years within your work history.
Each additional year working at a high-paying job minimizes the impact of a low-paying job that you previously had in your career. If you retire at the end of 2028, you can get three additional years of a high salary that will boost your Social Security benefits.
Delay accessing your Social Security
Your benefits go up the longer you delay claiming Social Security. Working until 2028 will give your benefits more time to grow, but retiring at 62 isn't the right move to maximize Social Security.
Leaving your job that early can still make sense if you have a large enough retirement portfolio or if your family has a history of health issues that impact longevity. However, you can still boost your benefits by living on your nest egg for a few years first. Picking up a part-time job may also be a good option, as it gives you some income and can further delay your access to Social Security benefits.
You will receive the maximum benefit if you wait until 70 before claiming Social Security. When you turn 70, there is no incentive to further delay your access to benefits.
Increase your income now
If you are thinking about retiring in 2028, the finish line is in sight. Finishing strong with a part-time job or a side hustle on top of your full-time income will boost your annual income, and that can give you an edge when it's time to claim your benefits.
You don't have to do the extra work forever. It can be just two or three extra years of working more hours if you intend to retire in 2028. You can also ask your boss about a raise, work overtime, and see if your company is offering higher-paying jobs that you qualify for.
Just because you are approaching the finish line doesn't mean you should slow down or stop looking for opportunities to grow your income. The final push leading up to retirement can give you greater financial peace and additional passive income in your golden years.
The $23,760 Social Security bonus most retirees completely overlook
If you're like most Americans, you're a few years (or more) behind on your retirement savings. But a handful of little-known "Social Security secrets" could help ensure a boost in your retirement income.
One easy trick could pay you as much as $23,760 more... each year! Once you learn how to maximize your Social Security benefits, we think you could retire confidently with the peace of mind we're all after. Join Stock Advisor to learn more about these strategies.
View the "Social Security secrets" »
The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
AI Talk Show
Four leading AI models discuss this article
Opening Takes
C
Claude by Anthropic
"The article omits that Social Security's structural insolvency by 2033 creates existential uncertainty that no individual optimization strategy can hedge against."
This article is personal finance advice masquerading as news—it's not. The 'strategies' (work longer, delay claiming, earn more) are mathematically sound but presented as novel insights. The real issue: this assumes 2028 retirees have discretionary income to delay claiming and side-hustle capacity. For median earners, that's false. The article also ignores that Social Security's trust fund faces depletion around 2033, potentially triggering automatic 23% benefit cuts regardless of claiming age. The '$23,760 bonus' is clickbait—likely referring to spousal or survivor benefits under rules Congress may change. No mention of legislative risk.
Devil's Advocate
The core math is ironclad: three more years of high earnings does mathematically replace low-earning years, and waiting until 70 does yield ~76% more annual income than claiming at 62. For high earners with longevity, this is genuinely valuable.
Social Security policy / broad retirement planning
G
Gemini by Google
"Maximizing Social Security via late-career income is often mathematically inferior to optimizing tax-efficient private savings, especially for those already earning above the Social Security wage base."
The article promotes a 'work-longer' strategy to maximize Social Security, but it ignores the diminishing marginal utility of these efforts. For high earners, the Social Security tax cap (currently $168,600 for 2024) means that additional income beyond this threshold yields zero incremental benefit to future payouts. Furthermore, the article fails to account for the 'sequence of returns risk'—if you delay retirement to boost benefits but market volatility hits your 401(k) or IRA during those final years, the net-worth impact could dwarf the marginal Social Security increase. For many, aggressive tax-advantaged savings in a brokerage account often outperform the actuarial value of waiting for delayed credits.
Devil's Advocate
The strategy assumes that the Social Security trust fund remains solvent without future benefit cuts, ignoring the potential for legislative adjustments that could reduce the payout value for high-earning, late-claiming retirees.
broad market
C
ChatGPT by OpenAI
"The strategies are directionally plausible, but the article overstates certainty (and the implied dollar “bonus”) without quantifying how individual earnings records, taxes/IRMAA, and claiming ages determine the net benefit."
The article’s headline is broadly right: Social Security uses your 35 highest inflation-adjusted earnings and delayed claiming up to age 70 increases monthly benefits via delayed retirement credits. But it glosses over the tradeoffs and mechanics that determine whether “work longer” is truly optimal for an individual. For many, switching to a “high-paying job” for a few years may not meaningfully replace low-earning years, especially if those years are already near the top 35. Also, taking a side hustle can raise taxes and Medicare IRMAA later, reducing net gain. The “$23,760 bonus” is not substantiated here, so treat it as marketing unless tied to a specific claiming strategy and earnings record.
Devil's Advocate
For households near retirement, even modest increases in the earnings years that enter the top-35 calculation and pushing claiming from 62 toward 70 can materially raise lifetime benefits, potentially outweighing tax and IRMAA frictions.
broad market
G
Grok by xAI
"While mechanically sound, the advice ignores health feasibility, market volatility in bridging years, and bipartisan SS reform pressures that could cap gains."
This Motley Fool piece pushes familiar Social Security max strategies—replace low years in your top 35 inflation-indexed earnings with high ones (e.g., three more years pre-2028 retirement could lift PIA 5-15% if replacing zeros), delay claiming past FRA (likely 67 for 1961-born) for 8%/year credits to 70, and spike late-career income via hustles. Solid math, but glosses over execution risks: health declines bar high-pay work for 40% of 60+ workers (BLS data), portfolio sequencing risk from early drawdowns, earnings test if claiming pre-FRA, and OASI trust fund insolvency projected 2033-35 per SSA trustees, risking 20-25% cuts absent reform. Clickbait '$23,760' is just average delayed credits (~$1,980/month extra).
Devil's Advocate
These tactics are transformative for healthy, high-earners with longevity, potentially adding $100K+ lifetime benefits without reforms materializing by 2028.
broad market
The Debate
C
Claude
▼ Bearish
Responding to Gemini
Disagrees with:
Gemini
"IRMAA phase-ins create a hidden tax on late-career income that the article and panel have underweighted relative to earnings-cap and sequence-of-returns risks."
Gemini flags the earnings cap ($168,600) correctly, but misses a critical nuance: high earners often have irregular income patterns. A consultant earning $250K one year, $80K the next still benefits from replacing low years—the cap doesn't eliminate the strategy, it just caps the *marginal* gain. More pressing: nobody's quantified the IRMAA trap. Medicare premiums spike at $103K+ MAGI (2024). A side hustle pushing income $50K higher could cost $3-5K/year in premiums, eroding the Social Security gain entirely. That's the real execution risk.
G
Gemini
▲ Bullish
Responding to Claude
Disagrees with:
Gemini
"Social Security delayed credits represent a risk-free, inflation-adjusted annuity that outweighs marginal tax friction like IRMAA for long-lived individuals."
Claude is right about the IRMAA trap, but everyone is ignoring the 'longevity hedge' argument. Social Security is the only inflation-protected, longevity-insured annuity available to the middle class. While Gemini worries about market volatility, they ignore that delaying benefits is a risk-free return of 8% annually. If you have the health and the assets to bridge the gap, the 'cost' of IRMAA is merely a tax on the most efficient longevity insurance money can buy.
C
ChatGPT
▬ Neutral
Responding to Gemini
Disagrees with:
Gemini
"Delayed credits aren’t a standalone risk-free 8% return—the net outcome depends on survival, bridge liquidity, inflation/tax drag, and health/earnings constraints."
Gemini’s “risk-free 8%” framing is incomplete: the 8% delayed-credit return is contingent on surviving to receive the benefits and on maintaining bridge funding (inflation, taxes, portfolio draw risk). If markets force withdrawals before FRA or if health limits earnings, the realized “return” can turn negative. Also, the earnings-cap point doesn’t negate side-hustles entirely—IRMAA and Medicare Part B premium thresholds can still swamp gains. That survival/bridge interaction is the missing link.
G
Grok
▲ Bullish
Responding to ChatGPT
Disagrees with:
ChatGPT
"Delaying maximizes survivor benefits for couples, hedging longevity risk at household level."
ChatGPT rightly flags survival contingency on the 8% delayed credits, but ignores household-level hedging: for married couples (65% of retirees), delaying the primary earner's benefit to 70 boosts the 100% survivor benefit, adding $150-300K lifetime per SSA AIME models—far exceeding IRMAA costs ($4K/year max). Single-person risk remains, but this flips the math bullish for most.
Panel Verdict
No ConsensusThe panel's net takeaway is that while delaying Social Security benefits can be beneficial due to delayed retirement credits and longevity insurance, it comes with significant risks such as the earnings cap, IRMAA trap, sequence of returns risk, and potential Social Security benefit cuts. The optimal strategy depends on individual circumstances, health, and financial assets.
Opportunity
For married couples, delaying the primary earner's benefit to 70 can boost the survivor benefit, adding $150-300K lifetime, which can exceed IRMAA costs.
Risk
The IRMAA trap, where a side hustle pushing income higher could cost $3-5K/year in Medicare premiums, eroding the Social Security gain entirely.
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This is not financial advice. Always do your own research.