- A 3.2% cost-of-living adjustment will go into effect in January for millions of Social Security beneficiaries.
- Here’s how to gauge how much extra you may see in your monthly checks.
How to calculate your Social Security COLA for 2024
There are two ways you can calculate how much your 2024 monthly Social Security check may be, according to Joe Elsasser, a certified financial planner and founder and president of Covisum, a provider of Social Security claiming software.
The best way is to take the amount of your current Social Security check and add back your monthly Medicare Part B premium, if it is deducted from your check. In 2023, the standard monthly Part B premium is $164.90. However, higher-income beneficiaries pay more, including single individuals with more than $97,000 in income and married couples with more than $194,000.
Then, apply the COLA to the entire benefit, including what you are having withheld for taxes. Next, subtract the new Medicare Part B premium for 2024, as well as taxes at the rate you have withheld. Next year, the standard monthly Part B premium will be $174.70. Higher-income individuals with more than $103,000 in income and married couples with more than $206,000 will pay more.
That should give you the size of your benefit for next year, according to Elsasser.
Alternatively, you can do a rough calculation by taking the monthly benefit you’re getting today and multiplying by 1.032.
“It would be a rough calculation, but it’s a reasonable guess,” Elsasser said.
How your 2024 benefit compares to others
The maximum benefit for a retired worker who claims at full retirement age will go up to $3,822 per month in 2024, up from $3,627 per month in 2023.
The average benefit for all retired workers will be $1,907 in 2024, up from $1,848 in 2023, according to the Social Security Administration.
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