Delaying Retirement Can Increase Your Social Security Benefits
Delaying Retirement Can Increase Your Social Security Benefits
If you delay your retirement beyond full retirement age, you can get increased benefits from Social Security. Full retirement age is based on when you were born. For example, if you were born in 1937 or earlier your full retirement age is going to be 65. If you were born between the years 1948 and 1954 your retirement age will be 66. People born in 1960 or later will not reach full retirement age until they are 67.
If you have already reached full retirement age according to the year in which you were born and want to delay your Social Security benefits, you will get an increase in those benefits for each month that you delay.
The rate of increase for delayed Social Security benefits is,
If you were born 1933-1934 the yearly increase will be 5.5% and 11/24 of 1% monthly
If you were born 1935-1936 the yearly increase will be 6.0% and 1/2 of 1% monthly
If you were born 1937-1938 the yearly increase will be 6.5% and 13/24 of 1% monthly
If you were born 1939-1940 the yearly increase will be 7.0% and 7/12 of 1% monthly
If you were born 1941-1942 the yearly increase will be 7.5% and 5/8 of 1% monthly
If you were born 1943 or later the yearly increase will be 8.0% and 2/3 of 1% monthly
When you reach the age of 70 the increase will stop, regardless of if you continue to delay collecting your Social Security benefits.
When you apply for Social Security benefits you can choose to receive those benefits for months before you apply, though you must be full retirement age and cannot receive benefits for any months before you reached full retirement age. The SSA will also not make any retroactive payments further back than 6 months prior to the time they receive your application.
Determining if you want to retire early and begin collecting benefits or delay your benefits past full retirement is best made on your own particular financial needs. If you have other sources of income to compensate for the reduction of benefits for retiring at 62, this might be a good option, but if not you might want to wait until full retirement to collect the full benefits.
Delaying collection of your Social Security benefits is usually best if you plan to continue working past your full retirement age. This way you will not be collecting the benefits before you actually need them, plus the benefits will continue to increase up until you reach the age of 70.