Here are the steps to calculate your Social Security benefits:
1. Look at your annual income each year and only include the portion of your income that was subject to Social Security tax.
2. Index every year's earnings for inflation.
3. Consider the 35 highest inflation-adjusted years when calculating your benefit.
4. Add the 35 highest inflation-adjusted years together and average them to arrive at your lifetime average Social Security earnings.
5. Use your lifetime average Social Security earnings to calculate your Average Indexed Monthly Earnings (AIME).
6. Use your AIME to calculate your primary insurance amount (PIA).
