How Much Will I Receive in Social Security Benefits When I Retire?

When planning for your retirement, you want to know what benefits you can count on when you stop working. Social Security is the biggest source of income for the majority of retired people in the United States today. And even though social security can be a significant benefit, it was never intended to be the only source of income for retirement. Social security benefits are part of your plan to finance your retirement and must be supplemented with other sources of resources, such as personal savings, investments, a private pension plan from a company where you have worked, 401(k) plan, traditional Individual Retirement Account (IRA) or Roth IRA, income from a part-time job when you retire, income from your own business, or from self-employment when you retire.

It's important to plan for your retirement far ahead of time in order to be prepared. And to do this planning, you need information. You can find out how much your social security benefits will be from a statement that the Social Security Administration sends you by regular mail each year, or that you can request at any time.

How Do You Request the Statement?

The Social Security Administration automatically sends the statement by regular mail each year to all workers or ex-workers who are 25 years of age or older. If you want a statement at some other time, you can request it through the Internet, download the request form and send it by regular mail, or call 1-800-772-1212.

The Internet request is available at https://s044a90.ssa.gov. A request by Internet must be made during the hours indicated on this web page.

If you prefer to request the statement by regular mail, you can download the form, print it, and then send it by regular mail. You should go to the Social Security Statement website at www.ssa.gov/mystatement , and select the option "Need to request a Statement?" On the next page, called "Information about Requesting a Social Security Statement" toward the bottom you will find a link to "Social Security Statement request form SSA 7004". When you select the link, the form opens in a pdf document that you can print.