After 37 years as editor-in-chief of Vogue, Anna Wintour just announced she’s stepping down from the role. While everyone’s talking about who’ll replace the fashion icon who inspired “The Devil Wears Prada,” we got curious about something totally different: What’s her Social Security check look like?
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Here’s the thing that might surprise you: At 75, Wintour is probably getting one of the biggest Social Security checks the government sends out each month. (And yes, even fashion icons have to deal with Social Security just like everyone else.)
Here’s how much Anna Wintour’s Social Security check is each month.
If you work in America and pay taxes, you’re paying into Social Security whether you’re flipping burgers or running Vogue. Even if you’re worth an estimated $50 million like Wintour, you still get those Social Security taxes taken out of your paycheck.
The catch? Social Security wasn’t designed to make rich people richer. It was created to keep older Americans from living in poverty. But if you’ve been paying in for decades, you’re entitled to get something back.
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Most people think you retire at 65, but Social Security is way more complicated than that. You can start collecting at 62 if you want, but your monthly check will be smaller than if you waited.
For someone born in 1949 like Wintour, “full retirement age” was 66. That means if she waited until 66, she’d get 100% of whatever the government calculated she deserved. But if she was really smart (and let’s be honest, she probably was), she waited until 70 to start collecting. Why? Because for every year you wait past your full retirement age, your monthly check gets bigger — up to 32% bigger.
Since Wintour kept working at Vogue way past when most people retire, she probably waited until 70 to start collecting Social Security. That decision alone could have made her monthly check over $1,000 bigger.
Here’s where it gets interesting. Social Security looks at your highest-earning 35 years, adjusts them for inflation, and then uses a formula to figure out your monthly payment. The formula is designed so that people who didn’t make much money get a higher percentage of their income replaced, while high earners get a smaller percentage but still a decent amount.
