If Mary earns $250,000 in September before her FRA, will this affect her benefits?

The correct understanding here hinges on the implications of earnings and their relation to the Full Retirement Age (FRA) in context with Social Security benefits. When an individual like Mary earns above a specific earnings limit before reaching their FRA, this can indeed impact the amount they receive from Social Security. However, once an individual has reached their FRA, any earnings they have do not affect their benefits, regardless of the amount.

In this case, since the question specifies that Mary earns $250,000 before her FRA, we must focus on the effect of earning levels before her FRA. Typically, if she were below her FRA and earning that much, it would surpass the social security earnings limit, thus temporarily reducing her benefits. Nonetheless, the answer states that after reaching her FRA, her earnings do not count toward the limit, meaning her benefits would not be impacted.

This highlights that the key factor in determining the effect of earnings on benefits is the timing in relation to when an individual reaches their FRA. Therefore, understanding that benefits are unaffected once an individual reaches their FRA is crucial in this context, making this reasoning sound for the correct answer.