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Estimating Your Social Security Benefit
Especially during the pandemic, with Social Security offices closed to in-person visits and exceptionally long wait times on the phone, obtaining an estimate of your future Social Security benefit may prove to be a daunting experience. But there are ways other than direct contact with the Social Security office to get at least some idea of what your Social Security benefit will be. Fortunately, as part of Social Security’s general direction toward online services you can still get a benefit estimate, but with varying degrees of accuracy depending upon which of their online tools you use. If you’re not already collecting another type of benefit (such as a survivor or spouse benefit) you can create your personal My Social Security online account and get a pretty accurate estimate there. If that doesn’t work, you can use Social Security’s Retirement Estimator which will use your actual lifetime earnings record to estimate your future benefit. And if you can’t use the either your My Social Security account or the Retirement Estimator (e.g., you’re already collecting some other type of SS benefit), you can use Social Security’s Quick Calculator to get at least a general idea of what your benefit might be, based upon your current salary. All of this is explained in this Motley Fool article by Catherine Brock. Click here to read more.