Deciding when to claim Social Security benefits is crucial for retirement planning. The age at which you start affects your ...

When you've spent four decades or more in the workforce, it's understandable to be drawn to the idea of claiming those ...

At different stages of life, you might have to make some tricky financial decisions. For example, if you decide to become a ...

Key Points You don't become eligible for Social Security until you're 62 for the entire month.The earlier you claim Social ...

While the two studies above indicate that waiting longer results in a higher lifetime benefit, actual data shows more people ...

Importantly, the average Social Security benefit tends to increase over time because of inflation and changes in average ...

We take a look at how Americans’ year of birth affects their ‘full retirement age’, and how your monthly benefits go up the ...

Simply put, if you signed up for Social Security at 62 but regret it after the fact, you can undo your filing and claim benefits again at a later age, thereby increasing them. But there’s a catch.

One of the most popular ages to claim Social Security is also the earliest: 62. It's easy to understand why so many people apply right away. The sooner you sign up, the more months of checks you ...

Claiming early will reduce your benefits by up to 30% (if you have an FRA of 67 and claim at 62), but if you can survive on smaller checks, it might be a good idea.

To 'beat' Social Security, you'd have to play a risky game. If you claim the benefit at 62, you would have an eight-year head start over someone who collects their first check at 70.

If so, claiming at 62 might be a smart choice. The explanation for this brings us to our next topic: financial trade-offs associated with claiming Social Security at 62 versus 67. Financial trade-offs ...