How To Get The Maximum Monthly Social Security Payment In 2026

Today we'll be discussing how to maximize Social Security for 2026. Hello and welcome to Money Talks. My name is Ken Wink from Summit Financial Consulting. If you'd like more info about what you hear during the show today, give us a call at 586-226-2100 or visit us online at summitfc.net. While you're at the website, be sure to check out the podcast page. You can check out our past shows and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Amazon Music. So, 2026 is here, and for people who are Social Security age, a question we get asked all the time is, how do I max it out? So, today we'll be discussing how to maximize Social Security. The max income estimate for 2026, we're looking at $5,251 per month. Could end up being a little bit higher than that. We'll see how it goes when the final estimates come in, but That's our estimate for right now. Before we jump into this topic, let me introduce my co-host, Tony Shore. Tony, let's just say you're just enjoying your career of podcasting and radio so much with me that you decided to just keep working all the way through Social Security Age. How would you spend this extra $5,251 per month?

Wow. How would I spend it in retirement? Once I did retire, if I got that much, that's pretty good. That's a pretty good amount. For some reason, I thought it was like three or four thousand dollars was the maximum anyone could get out of their Social Security account. benefit. However, that does sound like a good number. If I kept working for a while, which I plan on doing, by the way, you and I are going to be doing this as long as my voice holds out. I'll be here with each weekend. It's a highlight of my week. That's for sure. I was expecting you to say your back was going to give up from carrying me on the show, but let me write that down.

That's a good one.

I wish I'd thought of it. But no. How would I spend it? Well, I assume I would spend it on things like bills. I'd use it to replace my income, but I'd like to travel. I mean, I'd spend it on things in retirement, maybe. I mean, obviously, the top two items on my list are always pizza and records. I mean, obviously.

Yeah, that's I was saying, like a lot of people hit full retirement age, like 67 years old, and then they keep working. But then they just turn on the Social Security for just like extra fun spending money.

Oh, I see. Oh, that's what you were getting at. No, I wouldn't do that. I would not. As long as I'm making a full time wage, I would not file and turn on Social Security because I. I don't want to lock in a lower amount. And if you're working, if you make more than a certain amount, they they take they hold it back anyway. Right. So you're not going to get all of that.

Yeah. And that's that's actually a really good point is that you can't max out the Social Security unless you wait until age 70 anyway. So I just wanted to hear you say records and pizza.

Yeah. Yeah, that was the that you were headed. I took me a while to get there. But yes, I mean, it's like I tell my kids, you know, if they're hoping for any type of inheritance or legacy being passed along, you know, daddy loves his pizza and records. Sorry, kids. Money's already allocated.

Yeah. Yeah. Records may be maybe an asset, you know.

Oh, well, they are. I've got some that are worth way more than I paid for them. So, yeah. Yeah. All right. Yeah. Yeah. There's a there's a chunk of change down there in my record room. I'll tell you that. So that's always fun. But then the kids, they'd rather have the money. They don't want me to put it in records. That's for sure. So I don't have to deal with it. But I've got a plan. If something happens to me, they know what to do.

Sounds good.

It's good to have a plan. They know they know who to call. So, yeah, it's always good to have a plan. And that's what you're saying. So Social Security, how do we get that maximum amount? I mean, you just said you just kind of spilled the beans there. So in order to get that five thousand plus, you have to wait until 70.

Yeah. So here's here's the maximums for each year, because I know not everyone wants to wait until age 70. So if you were to max it out for age 62, you could get almost three thousand dollars per month. The max for full retirement age next year should be around four thousand two hundred. And then the max for age 70, which is the overall maximum, that's the longest you can wait is until age 70 is around five thousand two hundred and fifty one dollars. So those are some hefty dollar amounts. Like you said, as time has gone on, these numbers have gone up because of what we call the COLA, the cost of living adjustment that increases the amount that Social Security pays each year. So that's been trucking along. So that's, I guess, one good thing about inflation, sort of, kind of. But yeah, $5,251 is a lot of money. And today we're going to explain how to get that.

Yeah, good. Okay. That's good. It'll be good to know how to maximize Social Security. I know that this is a hot topic. Social Security always is. We probably get the most views and listens and comments when we talk about Social Security, Ken. No doubt. And who doesn't want to maximize it? Although the majority of people file at 62 as soon as they can because they think they'll get more checks that way. And that doesn't always work out. In fact, it typically does not. So what do we do to maximize our Social Security payments? Besides, I mean, it's just about waiting or is there more to it?

There is more to it. So a lot of people don't realize that Social Security is based upon your 35 highest years of earnings. And then those are adjusted for inflation. So obviously that first job that you had when you got out of college, you're most likely not making money. Anywhere near as much as you were making in your later years in your 50s or 60s. So they are nice enough to adjust those those original payments when you first got going for inflation. So that's sort of step one is you got to make sure that you work for at least 35 years and preferably more than 35 years because they're going to take the 35 highest years of earnings. So, you know, sometimes people will say, hey, this next year, I'm going to work as much overtime as I can. And then maybe they take a year off or maybe they only do it half the year. You don't wanna get burned out at work, but the more that you work, the higher your income is, the better of a chance you have to hit this max. And for 2026 to have it count as a max year, wages wise, so you would have to work and earn $184,500 in 2026 to get the absolute maximum earnings. So obviously that's a lot of money and more than way more than what the average person makes. But one quick side note here to our business owners. We have a lot of business owners that decide to have their business set up as an LLC and then have it taxed as an S corporation. But then when you do that, you have this opportunity where you can take profit distributions and wages. And we run into business owners all the time that just forget to take wages. They just take all profit distribution. So that's a good way to save taxes right now. But it's also a great way to send a huge red flag to the IRS to come audit you because the IRS does require you to take wages. And then secondly, these wages are what your social security is based on. So you might be doing yourself a favor right now when it comes to taxes, but down the road, you could be really hurting yourself when it comes to social security and then also possibly getting audited by the IRS. So sorry for that little business rabbit hole there.

Oh, no, no. But yeah, you said audit and IRS. And I just, I kind of froze. I just... I went into a little shock right there. But so that's interesting. You have to make around one hundred and eighty four thousand plus a year to get the maximum.

Yeah. Just a few years ago. I mean, it's gone up every year. So it was one fifty. Then it was one sixty. Then it was one seventy. And now it's up to one eighty that you have to be able to get that maximum. Wow. Okay. So I'm not going to get that.

So basically, I'm out of luck right now. Okay. All right. Yeah, that's a bit of bad news.

Well, everybody wants to maximize it for their own situation, right? So you might not get all the way up to this 5,250, but... You know, getting it to 4,000 is better than being at 3,000. So you can follow these rules where you're trying to make sure that you work enough years. You're trying to make sure that you have some years that you really work overtime or have a side gig or do whatever you can to get your income as high as possible, just to try to take advantage of this because Social Security is always watching, I guess, you know, they're watching your tax returns and they're just going to make sure that Uh, when the dust settles, you get a social security amount that's appropriate for how much you paid into social security.

There you go. Well, and of course the number one way to maximize social security is to, uh, delay when you file, right? Uh, it's when you claim or when you file for social security. Um, because if you file at 62, it's, I've heard it's a, it's a 30% less you're going to get from your full retirement age if you wait, right?

Right. For most people these days, full retirement age is age 67. So every month that you file before age 67 and like you said, plenty of people do file at age 62. That is going to take a significant hit to your benefits. I just had a client call me yesterday and ask, hey, they were both in their 70s and they were saying, hey, I think my wife might be entitled to half of my Social Security. How do we make that happen? And, you know, the first question I asked them is, well, when did you turn it on? He's like, well, I turned it on as soon as I turned 62. So so that's the problem. You can have a spouse, especially like a stay at home mom or somebody, you know, sometimes in a couple of one person just makes more than the other person. And that's cool. But to try to take advantage of Social Security, you both have to turn it on at full retirement age to get that 50 percent benefit for the lesser earning spouse. So if either one of you flip the switch at age 62, it's going to it's going to take a bite out of that.

Sure. Obviously, it will take a big bite, but some people do need to file early. But everybody's situation is different. I see so many people just, well, my brother told me or my buddy across the street told me or a guy at work told me when he retired. My friend retired and he took it at 62 and he told me that's what I should do. So but everybody's so different. Your goals in retirement are different. How much you have saved and time horizon really affects when when you should file. Right. I mean, how much time you have or plan to spend in retirement. That's a big one, isn't it?

Yeah, that was the last thing I was actually going to touch on today is just the breakeven point. So we just had a client. I just sent a client an email yesterday with a full breakeven analysis. So what we mean when we say breakeven analysis is how long do I have to live to make it worth it to delay Social Security? So here's the nightmare scenario. Somebody waits all the way until age 70 to turn on their Social Security and then they die at age 71. You only got a year of those super high payments or the max. And the government sort of won in that situation. Tony, we don't want the government to win. On the flip side, sometimes people could turn it on at age 62 and now they're getting a much lower payment. So if we all knew the day we were going to die, this would be the easiest decision in the world for a lot of people because we know exactly how long we're going to live and at what age we should flip it on. Generally speaking, If you wait from age 62 until age 65 or 66, you usually have to live until age 80 to break even. And when I say break even is you didn't get any payments from Social Security, in my example, at age of 62, 63 or 64. So you missed out on some money. So the government rewards you by waiting, by giving you a higher payment. You missed out on money. So you're sort of trying to play catch up to, to make up for that money that you didn't get. So for a lot of people at age 80, 81, that's the point where by waiting, it paid off. And now you're making more money from the government every single year for as long as you live. If you make it to age 100, that could be a huge win. But if you make it to age 75, it could end up backfiring, but then making it even more complicated is are you married or not? Because the longer you write, right. Your spouse will get half of your benefits. Yeah. So the spouse will get a hundred percent of the highest of the two benefits. So a lot of people will say, Hey, you know, do I get to keep my social security? If my, if my wife passes away, if my husband passes away, no, you do not still get to social securities. You get the higher of those two. So by delaying to turn on social security, if you're the primary breadwinner, you may be increasing the income that you're, you're surviving spouse lives off of. There's a lot of factors, Tony. That's why we create social security maximization reports for our clients. We can run a number of different scenarios to see at what age you might pass away, at what age it might be beneficial to turn it on, what strategy you should use as far as a couple if you're married. So much that goes into it. That's why we use computers and logic and a good old-fashioned conversation to figure out what could potentially benefit you the most. We'd be happy to do that complimentary. We don't charge for those reports.

Yeah, that Social Security maximization report you run, I think it does over 20,000 calculations. That's right. And you factor in spousal benefits, things like that. So if you are listening to this show or watching it and you have not yet filed for Social Security, or maybe you just recently filed within the last few months, if you're in one of those two scenarios, Pick up the phone, give Summit Financial Consulting a call, set up that consultation and get that report run. There's no charge, no obligation for that. You want to make sure you've got your ducks in a row. Don't file just because somebody told you without talking to someone who does this and has gone through this process. You've helped so many people maximize Their Social Security, you want to look at the big picture and then you can make your decision. You might still, and even if the report says you got, you should file at 68 or 67 and three months, you know, every month that changes. So every couple of months, it's going to be a different amount. So That said, you might still decide after talking with you, Ken, and your team there. Well, based on my situation and with my personal health history and family health history and what I have right now and when I run and retire, it is better for me to file at 62 and not wait and do it. But you have to look at that first. So you have all the facts. That's for sure. I just look at your money.

I don't know.

Look at.

Look at your health. Look at what your life expectancy is. Look at whether or not you're married. Look at how much you trust the government. You know, that's a whole nother podcast is the Social Security Reserve Fund is supposed to run out of money in the early 2030s. So we've maybe got seven years. Six, seven years here before that might run out. So there's a lot of things to consider and it's really hard to do it on your own, like all on your own. And Tony, like you said, you don't want to just take your neighbor's word for it. Let's talk to somebody who can help you crunch the numbers, figure out what makes the most sense for you and your family.

Very good. All right. So how can our listeners out there get a hold of you and your team there at Summit Financial Consulting?

We'd be happy to help with Social Security maximization. Maybe you already got Social Security figured out. We'd be happy to give your investment portfolio a second set of eyes. We'll let you know what kind of fees you're paying, both the fees you can see and hidden fees. We'll help you figure out at what age you can retire. We'll help you figure out how much should you convert from IRAs to Roth IRAs to potentially avoid a big tax bill down the road because of our gigantic national debt. We'll help you put together an overall financial strategy that saves money on taxes and does what's best. Potentially does what's best for you and your family, maybe even your kids. So give us a call at 586-226-2100, or you can visit our website, summitfc.net. We'd love to help you protect your savings and feel confident about the road ahead.

All right, Ken, thank you so much for a great show. Listeners and viewers, we appreciate you tuning in. That does it for today's episode of Money Talks with Summit Financial Consulting, LLC, and our host, Ken Wink. Thank you for joining us for Money Talks. Don't head into retirement without a strategy that addresses both income and taxes. For more information, please contact Ken Wink at Summit Financial, working with people you trust. Call 586-226-2100 or visit SummitFC.net. Join us again soon for another episode of Money Talks.