Retirement planning is crucial to ensure you have enough savings to last through your golden years. A key factor in planning for retirement is determining your full retirement age for collecting Social Security benefits. Use our simple retirement calculator to find out when you can retire and start taking Social Security payments.
How Our Retirement Age Calculator Works
Our calculator makes it easy to figure out your full retirement age based on the year you were born.
To use the retirement calculator:
- Enter your birth year in the field below
- The calculator will automatically determine your full retirement age
- The result tells you the age you can retire and start taking unreduced Social Security benefits
Once you know your full retirement age, you can better plan when to stop working and start drawing Social Security payments.
What Is Your Full Retirement Age?
Your full retirement age is determined by the Social Security Administration. It is the age when you can start collecting your full Social Security retirement benefit amount without any reduction.
Historically, the full retirement age was 65. However, changes to Social Security enacted in 1983 increased the age gradually for anyone born after 1937.
Here is how the full retirement age increased incrementally by birth year:
- 1937 or earlier – 65 years
- 1938 – 65 years and 2 months
- 1939 – 65 years and 4 months
- 1940 – 65 years and 6 months
- 1941 – 65 years and 8 months
- 1942 – 65 years and 10 months
- 1943 to 1954 – 66 years
- 1955 – 66 years and 2 months
- 1956 – 66 years and 4 months
- 1957 – 66 years and 6 months
- 1958 – 66 years and 8 months
- 1959 – 66 years and 10 months
- 1960 or later – 67 years
As you can see, those born in 1960 or later have a full retirement age of 67.
Deciding When to Retire With Social Security
You can start taking Social Security retirement benefits before your full retirement age, as early as age 62. However, your benefit amount will be permanently reduced based on how many months before your full retirement age you start benefits.
For example, if your full retirement age is 67 but you elect to take benefits at 62, your benefit would be reduced by about 30%.
Conversely, you can delay taking benefits past your full retirement age in order to get a higher amount. Benefits increase by a certain percentage for each month you delay beyond your full retirement age, maxing out at age 70.
Use our retirement calculator now to find out your age for collecting full Social Security retirement benefits. Knowing your full retirement age will help you decide when the right time is to stop working and start drawing benefits.