Social Security is not meant to be your only source of retirement income, or even your biggest source of retirement income. But if you're forced to fork over a piece of your earnings (in the form of Social Security taxes), you may as well maximize your eventual Social Security benefits. The maximum monthly Social Security check anyone can receive right now, by the way, is $4,555.

Here's what it takes to secure Social Security payments of this size.

Social Security retirement benefits are determined by a mix of factors, including your age, how much you've worked, and of course, how much you earned during your working years. In all three cases, "more" leads to bigger monthly payments.

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Source Fool.com