I have run the numbers on my own “contributions” and I am surprised it is as high over 40 years of payments. The actual dollars “invested” by me and my employers, for half that time I was my own employer, is $332,000 for SS and $213,000 for Medicare taxes. I have payed employment taxes since I was 13 and near the max since I was 22.
I hope you live long enough to collect every last dime you “donated” WITH INTEREST.