Step 2: Check Your Earnings Record for Accuracy

Now that you have your Social Security statement, it’s time for a quick but crucial task: reviewing your earnings record. Your Social Security benefit is calculated based on your average earnings over your 35 highest-paid years of work. If the SSA’s record of your earnings is wrong, your benefit calculation will be wrong, too.

Mistakes can and do happen. A name change that wasn’t properly recorded, an employer who made a clerical error, or a simple typo could lead to a year’s worth of your hard-earned income being missing or incorrect. Over the course of your retirement, even a small error could add up to thousands of dollars in lost benefits.

Look at the year-by-year list of your past earnings. Does everything look right? Ask yourself these questions:

Are there any missing years? Do you see a year with “$0” earnings when you know you were working and paying Social Security taxes?

Do the amounts look correct? You don’t need to remember every exact salary, but if you see a number that looks far too low for a year you know you worked full-time, it’s worth investigating.

If you spot what you believe is an error, don’t worry. It can be corrected. You’ll need to contact the Social Security Administration and provide proof of your earnings. This could include old tax returns (like a W-2 form) or pay stubs. It’s always a good idea to keep important financial documents for this very reason.

Taking just 15 minutes to carefully scan your earnings history is one of the most effective ways to protect your future benefits. It’s a simple check-up that ensures your lifetime of work is fully and accurately counted.