Today, we're going to talk about five different social security limits that you need to know if you want to maximize your social security income in retirement.

This episode is based on a listener question, and what I'm going to do is answer the question directly, but then tie this into a bigger conversation about all the different things you need to know to make the most of your social security benefit.

This is another episode of Ready for Retirement.

I'm your host, James Cannell, and I'm here to teach you how to get the most of the life with your money.

And now, on to the episode.

This question comes from David, and David says the following.

He says, I've watched many of your videos and others as well concerning earnings tests, and I have a simple question I've never had a direct answer to.

I will be 63 in December, and if I apply for my Social Security to start in January of 2025,

can I work full time until I reach the earnings test limit for 2025 and take off the rest of the year?

It would be May of 2025.

So would I be on the yearly earnings test since I'm starting at the beginning of the year?

Thank you so much for your time and your wisdom on this issue from David.

Well, David, I'm going to answer your question directly, like I said, and then I'm going to tie this into a few other things that are probably relevant as well.

But to answer your question directly, any earnings that you receive before turning on your social security benefit are not included in the

earnings limit test. The earnings limit test only has to do with earnings that you receive once you

have begun your social security. So, in this example, up until April of 2025, you could earn as

much as you want to, and that's not going to impact Social Security. When you turn Social Security on

in May, in May and beyond, that's where the earnings limit comes into play. So more on that in just a

second, but the things that I'm going to walk through today are what's a difference between the Social

Security earnings limit and the Social Security wage base. On top of that, I'm going to talk about

what you need to know in terms of what is your max Social Security benefit, what are the provisional income amounts, and what are bend points

and what impact do they have on what you're going to receive from Social Security.

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