Your Social Security Benefit Isn't a Fixed Number
It Grows Every Year. And the bigger your starting benefit, the more every increase is worth.
Most people think of their Social Security benefit as a fixed number. It isn't. Every year, SSA adjusts benefits for inflation through the Cost-of-Living Adjustment — and over a long retirement, those annual increases add up to something significant.
There's a compounding effect that most people miss: COLA doesn't add a flat dollar amount. It multiplies your existing benefit. Which means the higher your starting benefit, the more every COLA increase is worth. Waiting to claim doesn't just give you a bigger check today — it gives you a bigger base for every increase that follows.
Use this tool to:
- See your projected monthly benefit at age 62, FRA, and 70 — decades into the future
- Understand how COLA compounds differently depending on when you claim
- Visualize the growing gap between early and late claiming over time on an interactive chart
- See a year-by-year table showing projected benefits at every five-year milestone
- Test different COLA rate assumptions — conservative, moderate, or historical average
How to use it:
- Enter your estimated monthly benefit at age 62, FRA, and/or 70
- Set your assumed annual COLA rate and your projection age
- Click "Project My COLA Growth" to generate your personalized chart and table
- Review the compounding insight to see how the advantage of waiting grows over time
This tool is completely private. No personal information is required, and nothing is stored or shared.
To go deeper, get all 5 volumes. The Truth About Social Security series was created to maximize your monthly income with confidence.
