Can You Keep Working and Start Getting Social Security?

Working part-time while collecting Social Security may seem like the ideal way to ease into retirement without giving up a salary altogether, but there are a couple of twists.

If you’ve reached your full retirement age (according to Social Security), no problem. You’ll get your entire retirement benefit no matter how much you make. If you’re below that threshold, though, your earnings can trigger some cuts in your monthly check.

Pay attention to these two numbers:

• Your full retirement age (67 for people born in 1960 and later)
• The annual earnings limit ($21,240 in 2023)

If you’re below full retirement, for every $2 you earn above that limit, you’ll lose $1 from your Social Security payment.

But here’s where it gets complicated. Let’s say you hit full retirement age in 2023. In that case, Social Security deducts $1 for every $3 you earn above a completely different limit — $56,520 in 2023 — but only on earnings BEFORE the month you reach your full retirement age.

Got that?

To preserve your Social Security income, you could suspend benefits while you’re still earning. Before you reach full retirement age, you have a year after first claiming benefits to suspend them. (Were you born before 1960? Check out Social Security’s calculator to find your full retirement age.)

For more on how working impacts Social Security benefits, read Money reporter Mary Ellen Cagnassola’s story.

— Jill Cornfield, deputy editor

Not having enough savings is a worry for nearly everyone approaching retirement age, according to Schroders, an investment manager. Just 24% of those surveyed in February and March expressed confidence in a comfortable retirement.

The research also found:

• 29% of millennials expect to reach $1 million in retirement savings.
• 59% of workers age 45 and older expect to have less than $500,000 saved.
• 64% of working millennials worry that financial stress will negatively affect their overall health.

• What happens when Social Security overpays you? They want it back.
• Lifespans are longer today than they were when Social Security was created — increasing your risk of outliving your money.
• An act of Congress could change the rules about Medicare and weight-loss drugs. (podcast)

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