1. Work a Full 35 Years to Eliminate Zeros

The Social Security Administration (SSA) calculates your baseline benefit—known as your Primary Insurance Amount (PIA)—using a formula called Average Indexed Monthly Earnings (AIME). To find your AIME, the agency looks at your highest-earning 35 years, indexes those wages for inflation, adds them up, and divides by 420 months.

If you only worked for 30 years because you took time off to raise children or retired early, the formula does not simply average those 30 years. The SSA automatically inserts five zeros into your earnings record to reach the 35-year requirement. A single zero drastically pulls down your average; five zeros can devastate it.

To maximize your check, ensure you have at least 35 years of recorded earnings. If you currently have fewer than 35 years, working a part-time job or consulting gig for a few extra years replaces those heavy zeros with actual income. Even a modest salary in your early sixties is mathematically infinitely better than a zero.