What is My Social Security Retirement Age?

It is important to know your Social Security retirement age to be able to calculate how much benefit you will receive after your retirement. The original Social Security Act was passed in 1935. According to this Act, the retirement age was set to be 65 years old. However, the legislation has been amended since then, as the U.S. Congress calculated that average life expectancy was increasing.

In 1983 amendments to the Social Security Act were passed. According to this new legislation, the retirement age started to increase step by step based on the year the person being retired was born.

Thus, here is a chart showing the full Social Security retirement age based on the recipient’s year of birth:

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It should be mentioned that if you were born on 1^st of January, you should refer to the previous year. (For example, if you were born on January 1^st, 1940, you should calculate your full retirement age based on the year 1939)

Also, it should be noted that people can retire at an earlier age; as early as 62 years old. However, in this case they will not receive the same amount of benefits if they retired at the age of 67 for example. In other words, the benefits will be reduced by a certain percentage.

Thus, a person may opt to either retire at the age of 62 or wait until he/she reaches the full retirement age mentioned in the chart above. Also, the retiree can delay receiving benefits after he/she has reached his/her full retirement age. This will help them get 8% of their benefit amount for each year delayed. However, it makes no sense delaying Social Security benefits after the age of 70, as this is the age when a person may get the maximum amount of benefits from Social Security.

Social Security Administration (SSA) has also got Medicare program. The Medicare program is designed for people aged 65 independent of the fact whether they have already retired or not. People should be careful to apply for this program three months before they are 65 years old. Though the program does not cover everything, it helps to cover a considerable amount of medical care expenses.

Hope this article helped you calculate your Social Security retirement age. Follow our articles and get more information about social security, retirement and much more.

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