How Claiming Social Security at 62 Affects Your Monthly Income for Life
Written by Selena Maranjian for The Motley Fool -> Claiming benefits early means smaller checks, but more of them. Give the decision of when to claim a lot of thought. One of the biggest decisions you'll ever make related to Social Security is when to claim your benefits. Clai
Claiming benefits early means smaller checks, but more of them.
One of the biggest decisions you'll ever make related to Social Security is when to claim your benefits. Claiming early means you'll get smaller checks -- though many more of them -- while delaying claiming can help you maximize your benefit (while receiving fewer checks in total).
Here's a look at how this decision can affect your retirement income .
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Each of us has a "full retirement age" at which we can start collecting the full Social Security benefits to which we're entitled based on our earnings. The full retirement age is 67 for those born in 1960 or later.
You can start collecting your benefits as early as age 62, or you can delay until age 70. (Delaying beyond age 70 offers no benefit.)
The table below shows the percentage of your full benefits you'll receive at each starting age:
As of April, the average monthly Social Security retirement benefit was $2,081, or about $25,000 annually. That's not a huge amount of income, but if your earnings were above average, so too will be your Social Security benefits -- up to a point. (Still, there are ways to beef up your benefits , especially if you're still working.)
