You can start claiming Social Security retirement benefits as early as age 62, but your monthly check will be permanently reduced if you claim before reaching your full retirement age (FRA).
Waiting until after your FRAto claim can actually increase your monthly benefit.
Understanding how your claiming age affects your benefits can help you decide when to start, based on your financial needs, health, life expectancy and other factors.
See if an annuity is your pathway to a financially secure retirement
What age can you start collecting Social Security?
The earliest you can collect Social Security
Collecting Social Security at age 62 may make sense if you have health concerns, need the income or have other reasons to start receiving benefits sooner. But the tradeoff is a smaller monthly benefit for life.
Here is a broad comparison for someone with an FRA of 67 who starts claiming early. Keep in mind this doesn’t factor in cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs), post-retirement earnings, taxes or other expenses.
- Claiming at 62 vs 67: 30% less per monthly check
- Claiming at 63 vs 67: 25% less per monthly check
- Claiming at 64 vs 67: 20% less per monthly check
- Claiming at 65 vs 67: 13.3% less per monthly check
- Claiming at 66 vs 67: 6.7% less per monthly check
The benefit of claiming Social Security at full retirement age
Full retirement age (FRA) is when you are eligible for 100% of your Social Security benefits. Starting in 2000, the federal government gradually began raising the FRA from 65 to 67.
For someone born in 1959, FRA is age 66 and 10 months. For anyone born in 1960 or later, it’s age 67. (Anyone born in 1958 or earlier has already reached FRA.)
The age you’ll receive the maximum Social Security benefits
Delaying benefits until after your FRA makes you eligible for delayed retirement credits, which increase your monthly benefits, through age 70.
For example, if you were born in 1960:
- and you claim at 68, you’ll get 108% of your full benefits.
- and you claim at 69, you’ll get 116% of your full benefits.
- and you claim at 70, you’ll get 124% of your full benefits
Holding off on filing can provide greater financial security throughout your retirement. But whether for financial or other reasons, only about 8.5% of seniors waited until 70 to start claiming, according to Social Security Administration data from 2025.
The median age to start receiving benefits was between 64 and 65 for both men and women.
When should you claim Social Security?
The right time to start filing for Social Security depends on several factors, including how much you’ve saved, your health and expected longevity, and how long you plan (or need) to keep working.
Weigh your options carefully. The age you start can have a lasting impact on your finances in retirement.
If you’re deciding when to start claiming, asking yourself these questions can help:
- How much income will I need in retirement?
- Do I have enough savings to cover my expenses if I delay benefits?
- How much would my benefit be at 62, at my full retirement age and at 70?
- How is my health, and what is my expected longevity?
- How would claiming early affect my monthly benefits?
- What other sources of retirement income do I have?
- How would my decision affect my spouse’s benefits?
- Is it more important for me to have more income now or a larger monthly benefit later?
PRO TIP: Social Security calculators
Knowing how much you’ll receive in Social Security benefits will help you make your decision about when to start claiming. The Social Security Administration’s Quick Calculator gives estimates for three different retirement ages, in today’s dollars or inflated for future dollars. You only need to input your date of birth, current annual income and projected retirement date.
If you know what you’ve earned each year you’ve worked, you can get a more accurate estimate using this online calculator.
How to supplement Social Security
Social Security is only expected to replace a portion of your pre-retirement earnings, making other savings an important part of most post-employment financial plans.
1. Retirement accounts
If you have access to a 401(k) account, try to contribute at least enough to earn the full employer match, if one is offered. Many employers will match between 2% and 6% of an employee’s annual salary.
An individual Retirement account (IRA) isn’t tied to your employer, so you can keep contributing when you move to another job. A traditional IRA is tax-deferred — funds grow tax-free and then withdrawals are subject to income tax when you take distributions. It’s often opened by people who expect to be in a lower tax bracket in retirement.
Money contributed to a Roth IRA is taxed before you contribute it, so your investments grow tax-free and withdrawals in retirement are also tax-free.
Charles Schwab, Betterment and Wealthfront rank among our top picks for brokerages to open a Roth or traditional IRA with.
Betterment
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Minimum deposit and balance
Minimum deposit and balance requirements may vary depending on the investment vehicle selected. For example, Betterment doesn’t require clients to maintain a minimum investment account balance, but there is a ACH deposit minimum of $10. Premium Investing requires a $100,000 minimum balance.
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Fees
Fees may vary depending on the investment vehicle selected, account balances, etc. Click here for details.
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Investment vehicles
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Investment options
Stocks, bonds, ETFs and cash
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Educational resources
Betterment offers retirement and other education materials
Terms apply. Does not apply to crypto asset portfolios.
Wealthfront
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Minimum deposit and balance
Minimum deposit and balance requirements may vary depending on the investment vehicle selected. $500 minimum deposit for investment accounts
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Fees
Fees may vary depending on the investment vehicle selected. Zero account, transfer, trading or commission fees (fund ratios may apply). Wealthfront annual management advisory fee is 0.25% of your account balance
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Bonus
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Investment vehicles
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Investment options
Stocks, bonds, ETFs and cash. Additional asset classes to your portfolio include real estate, natural resources and dividend stocks
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Educational resources
Offers free financial planning for college planning, retirement and homebuying
2. Annuities
Annuity sales reached an all-time high of $464.1 billion in 2025. You can fund an annuity in one lump sum or through a series of payments, and the investment can grow either at a fixed or variable rate. You can also select an annuity that’s tied to a market index, with caps on gains and losses.
Athene and Gainbridge are two of CNBC Select’s top picks for annuity companies.
Worried about outliving your retirement savings? Annuities can help.
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Immediate annuities, fixed annuities, fixed indexed annuities, registered index-linked annuities
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3. Investments
Stocks, bonds, CDs and other investments can also supplement your retirement income. Vanguard is a popular choice for investing, thanks to its low-cost index funds, retirement planning tools and broad lineup of mutual funds and ETFs, including target-date retirement funds.
FAQs
Do I have to wait for my birthday to file for Social Security?
No, you can file for Social Security benefits up to four months before the date you want your benefits to begin.Benefits cannot start until your first full month as a 62-year-old, so the earliest you can submit your application is four months before the month you turn 62.
To give your application time to be processed, it’s recommended that you submit it at least two months before you want your benefits to start.
If I claim Social Security early, are my benefits permanently reduced?
Yes, if you filed for Social Security before reaching FRA, any reduction in your benefits is permanent. The difference depends on how many months early you began receiving them.
For example, if your FRA is 67 and you start claiming at 62, your benefits will be permanently reduced by about 30%. Future cost-of-living adjustments will increase the dollar amount you receive, however.
Can I collect Social Security and still work full-time?
Yes, you can continue to work and collect Social Security. However, if you’re claiming before reaching your FRA, then your benefits may be temporarily reduced.
Once you reach full retirement age, Social Security recalculates your benefits to account for any months when benefits were reduced or withheld because of other earnings.
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At CNBC Select, our mission is to provide our readers with high-quality service journalism and comprehensive consumer advice so they can make informed financial decisions. Every retirement article is based on rigorous reporting by our team of expert writers and editors with extensive knowledge of retirement savings products. While CNBC Select earns a commission from affiliate partners on many offers and links, we create all our content without input from our commercial team or any outside third parties, and we pride ourselves on our journalistic standards and ethics.
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