When do full retirement benefits start

Each month you put off filing up to age 70 earns you delayed retirement credits that boost your eventual benefit. Updated March 15, How much does early retirement reduce your benefits? How much can I earn while on Social Security in the year I reach full retirement age? Family Caregiving. Leaving AARP. Got it! Please don't show me this again for 90 days.

Cancel Continue. Thank You. Your monthly payments are fixed based on the average of your top 35 earning years. But once you elect to receive benefits, you can't continue to increase your average based on later Social Security contributions. There are no such deductions if you work after reaching full retirement age. The SSA provides an online earnings test calculator to determine whether working will lower your retirement benefits. How's your health? If you're convinced—either by genetics, research, or the amount of time you spend in doctors' offices—that you'll have a shorter lifespan than your peers, it doesn't make much sense to delay your retirement benefits.

What's your break-even point? If you had a good idea of when you were to die, you could compare your total benefit payments under all three common scenarios—age 62, full retirement age, and age Financial planners prefer to calculate your break-even point—that's the age at which two of your total lifetime benefit amounts become equal to each other. If you believe you'll live past this age referred to as the "break-even" age , you should delay claiming benefits until the later of the two dates, in order to give yourself an overall higher total.

Your personal break-even point will depend on a combination of factors, including your earnings record and when you were born. To get specific information about your personal break-even point, you can call Social Security at and ask them to do the calculations for you. Social Security states that if you live until your average life expectancy, your total lifetime benefit should be roughly the same whether you choose to retire at age 62, 66, or Are you married?

If one spouse has contributed far less to Social Security than the other, the greater-contributing spouse should ideally wait longer to claim benefits—at least until full retirement age.

Then if the higher-earning spouse dies first, the survivor can claim the spouse's full benefit. For many couples, it pays for the wife to start collecting at 62 and for the husband to wait.

This is because husbands are likely to die first; when that happens, the widow can collect survivors benefits based on his, typically higher, benefits.

It's all probability, of course, and changing right along with other societal changes. Read more at Nolo's article on how spouses can maximize their retirement benefits.

If you work during retirement, you have another incentive to delay collecting Social Security. Earning too much at a job after you begin collecting your benefit can reduce your payout, but only if you have yet to hit full retirement age. However, when you hit full retirement age, your benefit will increase to account for any benefit that was withheld earlier due to working. However, taking early benefits can still pay off despite the reduced monthly check.

Married women are also good candidates for claiming early benefits because they are likely to outlive their husbands. However, this scenario works only if the husband does not claim his benefits early. By not claiming early benefits, the husband effectively increases the monthly benefit his wife eventually receives. Your break-even age occurs when the total value of higher benefits from postponing retirement starts to exceed the total value of lower benefits from choosing early retirement.

If you expect to live beyond that age, it could make financial sense to delay drawing benefits. Consider your own financial needs, health and other retirement plans before making the call. But if you expect to live until a ripe old age and you otherwise have your own financial resources, it can make a lot of sense to delay taking your monthly benefit and pile up a larger paycheck while you wait.

How We Make Money. Written by James Royal. Written by. James Royal. Bankrate senior reporter James F. Royal, Ph. He leads a team responsible for researching financial products, providing analysis, and ….

Edited By Brian Beers. Edited by. Rewards for Good. Share with facebook. Share with twitter. Share with linkedin. Share using email.

Your birthday generally determines your monthly payment schedule : If the birthday is between the first and the 10th day of the month, the benefit payment arrives on the second Wednesday of each month. If the birthday is between the 11th and the 20th, the payment comes on the third Wednesday of the month. If the birthday is between the 21st and the end of the month, the payment arrives on the fourth Wednesday of the month.

Keep in mind Benefit applications can take up to three months to process, so apply three months before your planned start date. Updated May 25,