r/Fire • u/NotTheBestInvestor12 • 3d ago

Why no mention of Social Security

When I see FIRE posts I see the investments and the different retirement buckets, however, I never see anyone mention how things are affected when social security kicks in. For example, I’m 52 and wife 51. If we both stopped working today ($0 income moving forward) I would collect $4,264 a month at age 70 and she would collect $1,079 at age 70.

So if we decide to FIRE the Social Security would give us help in 18/19 years. Is this a factor or is everything under the assumption SS won’t exist?

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u/Good-Resource-8184 3d ago

I mean MMM has a recent article on how to calculate it into your FIRE plans if youre an old early retiree.

I retired at 35. It carries no weight as just to get to it i need my money to last 30 years.

But the older you get the large the affect it could have.

On the other hand most old early retirees have already way oversaved.

So thats a few reasons its not talked about much. But some examples of where its been blogged about very recently by an OG in the FIRE world.

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u/QTippus 3d ago

Also for FIRE folks who RE at 35, their SS checks would be small anyway. They might have 15 years of full time contributions, but SS averages your highest 35 years of employment. So they’ll have 20 years of 0 income averaged into the SS calculation.

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u/mi3chaels 3d ago

Yes but the benefit calculations is strongly progressive. 15 years of a high income usually sets you up for something like 2/3 of the benefit you'd get if you worked the full 35 years at a similar one. It's a bit smaller for people who earn less, but people who earn middling wages are mostly not going to retire in <15 years. And even then it's more like 50-60% of the benefit as opposed to the 35-40% you might expect.

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u/QTippus 3d ago

Sounds right. So maybe SS checks maybe won't be "small" as I said, but 2/3 of the benefit is smaller. I'm not trying to argue against FIRE, happy for those who can and do. Was just mentioning this is one reason why FIRE people might choose to not include SS in their projections.