Calculator preparation
How to Read Your Social Security Earnings Record
Use the yearly Social Security and Medicare earnings shown in your official my Social Security record as the starting point for an estimate. Review missing or incorrect years before relying on any retirement projection.
SSA sources reviewed September 9, 2026
- Best source
- my Social Security record
- Input format here
- Year, amount
- Sensitive data needed
- No SSN required
Prepare the yearly entries
Sign in to your official my Social Security account and review the earnings history. For Claiming Planner, enter one calendar year and covered-earnings amount per line, such as “2024, 68,000.” Do not email or enter your Social Security number.
A blank year is not the same as a zero entered by mistake. The calculator asks you to confirm that omitted years should be treated as zero because missing years can materially affect a highest-35 estimate.
Check common discrepancies
Look for missing employers, years with unexpectedly low amounts, and recent years that may not yet be posted. Self-employment income and wages can appear differently from gross business revenue or take-home pay. Use SSA's correction process when the official record is wrong rather than editing the record only inside a planning tool.
Review the calculation detail
After calculating, open the indexed-earnings detail. It shows the entered amount, taxable-cap result, wage-indexed amount, and whether the year entered the highest 35. This provides an audit trail for the estimate without sending your earnings to the server.
Official sources
Use these SSA pages to verify the rules and current annual amounts:
Educational information only. This page covers retired-worker benefits and is not personalized financial, tax, or legal advice. Confirm filing decisions and official benefit amounts with the Social Security Administration.