I'm on vacation now, and I set out a small list of things I need to do that I can't do while working, which means I'm desperately trying to avoid doing those things. So instead I finally sat down and updated my MySSA account, which shows me my social security contributions for every year and what I could expect to receive when I retire. (You can get yours by starting at https://secure.ssa.gov/RIL/SiView.action and following the prompts.) I exported my annual social security earnings into a spreadsheet, and then converted each year's value to 2026 constant dollars. I graphed that and got a bit of a slap in the face.
Some key facts here: in 1985 my earnings were so small they don't show up on the graph. I worked summers of my freshman, sophomore, and junior years in college from 1986-1988 at the TV faceplate factory where my father worked. In 1989 all my earnings were from Universities, which didn't count towards social security. In 1990 and 1991 I was working at a criminally low-paying solar cell manufacturing job in Delaware. (For most of my time there, I discovered, they were paying me below minimum wage, but were able to get away with it because it was Delaware.) I started working at Specialty Records/WEA Manufacturing midway through 1992, and moved into a series of salaried positions in 1994. In 2007 I lost my high-paying salaried job there and began working in a manufacturing position, maximizing my income by working as much overtime as possible. I was laid off again in 2011 and began working basically on-call, which lasted through 2012. In 2012-2018 I worked for a travel call center, again working as much overtime as possible, and then worked at a cable/telephone/internet service provider call center from late 2018 through mid-2019. In mid-2019 I began my current job.
Broadly my work history can be broken into two parts. After my plans for a career in academia collapsed in 1989, I had a career-building phase in manufacturing from 1992-2007, with a continuation in that same industry from 2007-2010. Since 2011 I have been in survival and recovery phase, with employment opportunities dictated by the transformation of Northeastern Pennsylvania from a manufacturing economy to one centered on warehouses and call centers, coupled with the need to stay in the area to take care of my mother. That particular need ended with her death in 2023, but by then I had no desire to leave the area and start over again.
I am currently earning an amount comparable to what I was earning when I ran a DVD press line (three of them, actually) from 2008-2010. I am earning less, adjusted for inflation, than I did from 1993 through 2007.
Social security retirement is based on your top 35 years of earnings. From this graph I have about 30 years of decent earnings and nine crappy years (not counting 1985 or 1989.) Assuming I continue to earn more each year than the year before and my increases exceed inflation, I need to work at least five more years before I can consider retirement.
In 1992 I bought my first used car. In 1996 I bought my first new car. From 2002-2006 I traveled to Ireland three times. In 2006 I bought my grandmother's house. Back then I could afford to do those things easily.
Fortunately during much of 1990-2010, my prime earning years, I plowed lots of my income into my 401k. That provides a significant safety net for the future.
Based on family history, I might have another 15-20 years left in me. If I retire in 5 years, I will have to make my social security and savings last at least 10-15 years. If I wait until full retirement age in eight and a half years, I will have a higher social security benefit but fewer years to enjoy retirement. If I hold out to age 70 I will maximize my benefits but have little time left to enjoy retirement.
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