There are advantages and disadvantages to taking your benefit before your full retirement age. The advantage is that you collect benefits for a longer period of time. The disadvantage is your benefit will be reduced. Each person's situation is different.
The earliest you can start taking Social Security retirement benefits is 62. However, the Social Security Administration reduces benefits by 30% for people who retire at 62, meaning they receive just 70% of their full retirement benefit each month for life.
In the U.S., you can retire as early as 62 and start claiming your Social Security. And as of 2021, according to the Congressional Research Service, about 30% of Social Security applicants were 62.
Assuming your full retirement age is 67, if you file for those retirement benefits at 62, you'll receive around 70% of your full retirement age benefit amount. If you file for disability and are awarded those benefits, the amount that you would receive would be 100% of your full retirement age benefit, even at 62.
The biggest risk of claiming early
The earlier you file for Social Security, the less you'll receive each month. But it could end up being more costly than many people think. By claiming at age 62, your benefit will be reduced by up to 30%.
According to a recent paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research, 19% of survey participants said they regretted taking Social Security too soon. Among the other top regrets the retirees had were not having saved enough, not purchasing long-term care insurance, and not working longer.
Based on data from the SSA's Office of the Actuary, nearly 566,000 aged 62 retired-worker beneficiaries were receiving $1,274.87 as of Dec. 2022. Meanwhile, the average Social Security check for the 2.27 million retired workers at age 66 is $1,719.85.
He claims that doing so will give you a greater return than you would get by waiting until a later age to apply for Social Security, which means you get a bigger monthly check. “It usually makes sense to take it early if you're going to … invest every bit of it,” Ramsey said in a 2019 podcast that aired on YouTube.
You can start receiving your Social Security retirement benefits as early as age 62. However, you are entitled to full benefits when you reach your full retirement age. If you delay taking your benefits from your full retirement age up to age 70, your benefit amount will increase.
Beneficiaries are currently searching for information on How Do I Receive the $16728 Social Security Bonus? Retirees can't actually receive any kind of “bonus.” Your lifetime earnings are the basis for a calculation that the Social Security Administration (SSA) uses to calculate how much benefits you will receive.
You can apply for retirement benefits up to 4 months before you want to start receiving your benefits. Even if you are not ready to retire, you still should sign up for Medicare 3 months before your 65th birthday.
Many senior adults struggle with conditions like heart disease, arthritis, and diabetes. Retiring in your early 60s will allow you to focus more on your health and lower your risk of developing these conditions. Retiring at the early age of 62 is also beneficial to those who already have serious health concerns.
The average age of retirement in the U.S. is 61, according to Gallup. That hasn't changed much over the past two decades. Since 2002, the average retirement age has ranged from 59 to 62. Going back further, the average retirement age was 57 in 1991, 58 in 1992, and 57 again in 1993.
The maximum benefit depends on the age you retire. For example, if you retire at full retirement age in 2024, your maximum benefit would be $3,822. However, if you retire at age 62 in 2024, your maximum benefit would be $2,710. If you retire at age 70 in 2024, your maximum benefit would be $4,873.
The Social Security disability five-year rule allows people to skip a required waiting period for receiving disability benefits if they had previously received disability benefits, stopped collecting those benefits and then became unable to work again within five years.
While you may have heard at some point that Social Security is no longer taxable after 70 or some other age, this isn't the case. In reality, Social Security is taxed at any age if your income exceeds a certain level.
Age 66. Unsurprisingly, beginning to collect when you're eligible for full Social Security retirement benefits was the most popular option for both sexes, with 28.4% of men and 26.5% of women beginning at this age in 2022.
About 40% of people who get Social Security must pay federal income taxes on their benefits. This usually happens if you have other substantial income in addition to your benefits.
You can use Social Security's benefit calculators to: Estimate your retirement benefits based on when you would begin receiving them (from age 62 to 70) Calculate what payments you would receive based on your earning history.
If your pay at retirement will be $100,000, your benefits will start at $2,026 each month, which equals $24,315 per year. And if your pay at retirement will be $125,000, your monthly benefits at the outset will be $2,407 for $28,889 yearly.
If you start taking Social Security at age 62, rather than waiting until your full retirement age (FRA), you can expect a 30% reduction in monthly benefits with lesser reductions as you approach FRA. Remember, FRA is no longer age 65: It's 67.
Based on the 80% principle, you can expect to need about $96,000 in annual income after you retire, which is $8,000 per month.
We: Base Social Security benefits on your lifetime earnings. Adjust or “index” your actual earnings to account for changes in average wages since the year the earnings were received. Calculate your average indexed monthly earnings during the 35 years in which you earned the most.