I just realized that I might be screwing up my future Social Security benefit.
I was a W2 employee working for companies from 1983 to 2020. In 2020 I opened my own office. For one year I was filling as a sole proprietor, paying employment and self employment taxes including FICA on my entire business income. Starting 2021, I have filed as a S-Corp and employ myself as a W2 employee. I pay myself a salary, on which I pay FICA, and take the rest of my business income as owner draw. My salary is fairly modest, which reduces my FICA tax.
Okay, so what I’m wondering is if I would be better off increasing my salary and hence FICA tax, to maximize my Social Security benefit in retirement. I’m 60, like my work, and would like to keep doing it for a long time, so retirement is likely 7-10 years away.
How can I figure this out?
I was thinking I could dump my income history from the Social Security website into a spreadsheet, go look up the formula used to calculate future benefit starting with
https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10070.pdf, and then plug in various possible salaries for 2024 until retirement, and estimate the resulting SS benefit in the future as well as the resulting FICA in the present.
Is there a pre-built calculator anywhere, or are there people who consult on this stuff?