Short Form How Social Security Calculates Your Benefit and What You Can Do About It

LEGACY INVESTMENT SERVICES

YouTube Short Script  |  June 2025  |  Week 2 - Short 12

TITLE: How Social Security Calculates Your Benefit and What You Can Do About It

ADVISOR: Jordan Cassiani

RUNTIME: 55-65 seconds

FORMAT: Vertical 9:16, tight on-camera, no cuts

CTA: Link in bio for complimentary retirement income analysis

Securities and advisory services offered through Osaic Wealth, Inc., member FINRA/SIPC. Legacy Investment Services and Osaic Wealth are separate entities. Content is for educational purposes only. Not investment, tax, or legal advice. All scenarios are hypothetical illustrations.

SCRIPT

Your Social Security benefit is calculated from your 35 highest-earning years. If you worked for fewer than 35 years, the Social Security Administration fills in zeros for the missing years, which pulls your average down and reduces your benefit.

Here is what that means practically. If you worked 30 years and you are thinking about retiring, adding five more years of earnings, even at a lower salary than your peak years, can replace five zeros in that 35-year average. Replacing a zero with even a $60,000 salary year meaningfully increases your calculated benefit.

On the other end, if you have already worked 35 or more years but your recent earnings are lower than your historical high years, additional years of work may not help much because your lower recent years are not replacing zeros, they are replacing higher historical years.

You can see your full earnings history and your estimated benefit at any age at SSA.gov. Create a my Social Security account if you have not already. The estimate there is based on your actual record and is the most accurate projection available.

Understanding how the calculation works lets you make smarter decisions about timing, whether to work a few more years, and when to claim.

Link in my bio.

PRODUCTION NOTES

This is specific, concrete, and actionable. The 35-year calculation is something many people do not know. The SSA.gov call to action adds real credibility.

Legacy Investment Services  |  Jordan Cassiani  |  Legacy - How Social Security Calculates Your Benefit - Short - Week 2