How did I figure out the $130,169.69 number? Taking max taxable income for that year and used the rate the ssa.gov showed for that year. Added the whole shooting match up for the last 45 years, and that is the absolute top of what someone, by law, could pay into the system. Any excess contributions are returned to the payer at the end of the tax year the overage occurred.What if you continue working to 70? Actually, my "age" isn't 65, it's 66 and 10 months due to the ratcheting up of the retirement age.
If you keep working, you keep contributing. And they will start to take money back from you if you exceed the other cap they set... how much they ‘allow’ you to make while drawing SS.
And if you die the day before retirement, the government keeps the whole thing. They like when people do that. It is why SS retirement was set at 65. Half of the population was supposed to kick off before they reached that age, and most of the rest shortly after.