I did the complete social security analysis this morning using the indexed formulas, and while it's a little painful to do, it's an insightful process.
I'm 40 now and have 22 years of earnings, but excluding summer job and small potato years while in school, 16 real earning years. Social security looks at your best 35 years of earnings, and puts zeros for any years less than 35. BUT . . . they then use an indexed formula that gives you progressively less benefit for each additional dollar earned once you've earned a fair amount.
What that means for me is that I have already earned enough to get benefits of $1,920 per month (or $23,041 per year). Of course, I don't get that until age 67, but that is based on my earnings to date and nothing more.
According to my social security statement, if I work and earn max social security salary (currently $118,500) for the next 27 years, my benefits will be . . . $2,851 per month.
That's an increase of less than $1,000 per month in retirement benefits for earning max salaries for the next 27 years.
Of course, they could change benefits or formulas. But what is interesting is to realize that because of the way the social security formula works, you can already have earned the majority of what you would otherwise get by just having a few good work years as opposed to a 35-year career.
So your money still needs to get you to 67 (or 62 if you take early, reduced benefits), but once you get to 67, you may already have a fair amount of benefits, especially with a federal government annuity factored in (kicks in at 62), that takes care of most of your annual spending needs at that point. I would at least consider that when thinking about your bridging strategy and what money covers you for what periods of your life.