Ever wondered what your social security benefit will be when you retire? Try this new calculator.

On Monday of this week, the Social Security Administration announced its new retirement benefit calculator. I've tried it and it is actually pretty neat. After entering some identifying information, the calculator retrieves all of your earnings records and calculates your expected benefit. (If the information you enter does not match Social Security's records, you will not be permitted access to the calculator.)

So far, this doesn't sound like anything new because your earnings record and expected benefit are reported to you each year when you receive your annual benefit estimate in the mail. However, your old paper statement assumed that your salary stayed the same until you retired, which probably isn't realistic for most people.

The new calculator lets you choose any date you want to stop working and you can enter more realistic estimates of your future earnings. I'm not sure if there is a limit to the number of scenarios you can create, but I was able to create ten different projections in just a few minutes time.

If you have ever wondered how your benefit might change if you stopped working early, or took a higher (or lower) paying job, this is definitely the calculator for you.

Finally, for anyone who might be concerned about privacy issues, the calculator does not display any personal information like your address, earnings, or any other information that could lead to identity theft. Also, the Social Security Administration has built in a "blocking" feature that lets you prevent anyone from estimating your retirement benefit. If you block your record and later decide you want to unblock it, you must call or visit a Social Security office.