Full retirement age (FRA) is the age at which you can claim your standard Social Security benefit, or your primary insurance amount (PIA), from Social Security. Your PIA is the standard corporeality you can expect to receive based on your inflation-adjusted boilerplate wages earned throughout your career. Full retirement historic period is 66 for those built-in in 1954 and 67 for those born in 1960 or later -- it varies depending on your birth year.

It is important to know your full retirement age, as it affects when you can claim Social Security without reducing your benefits, the amount of delayed retirement credits you can earn in gild to raise your benefits, and how much y'all can earn from working while receiving Social Security without forfeiting any of your benefits.

Social Security full retirement age chart

The chart below shows the full retirement age for people born at dissimilar times.

A table of Social Security full retirement age by birth years.

Data source: Social Security Administration. Nautical chart by author.

How does full retirement historic period impact your Social Security benefits?

If you merits your benefits at full retirement age, you lot will receive your standard Social Security benefit corporeality. If you claim prior to FRA, you will be discipline to early filing penalties that reduce your benefit by the following amounts:

  • five/9 of 1% for each of the first 36 months before FRA
  • 5/12 of ane% for each subsequent month before FRA

This amounts to a 6.7% almanac reduction for each of the first three years and an additional 5% reduction for each following year before FRA. If yous claim benefits at 62 with an FRA of 67, you will face a full 30% reduction in benefits.

By contrast, if yous claim benefits subsequently FRA, y'all receive delayed retirement credits valued at 2/3 of 1% per month. This results in an 8% annual increment to your monthly benefit. Delayed retirement credits can be earned until age 70, afterwards which time there is no financial benefit to delaying your claim. Delayed retirement credits cannot exist earned if you are claiming either spousal or survivor benefits.

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Working after full retirement age FAQ

Retirees may piece of work while collecting Social Security benefits, simply those younger than their FRA will be subject to the retirement earnings exam (RET).

Under this examination, if your earnings exceed a certain limit (which changes annually), yous will temporarily forfeit some or all of your benefits. One time you reach full retirement age, your benefit is recalculated and you lot may receive most of that money dorsum.

Tin I work after full retirement historic period?

You can piece of work afterwards full retirement age and earn equally much as you'd like without the corporeality of your Social Security benefits being afflicted at all.

How much tin can I earn if I work subsequently my full retirement age?

If you proceed to work after reaching full retirement age, you may work and earn every bit much every bit y'all'd like. Y'all will not be subject area to the retirement earnings test, and your Social Security benefits will not be afflicted.

If you work prior to FRA, you lot may forfeit function of your benefits if you earn above annual thresholds. However, your benefit corporeality will exist recalculated at total retirement age to business relationship for most of those forfeited funds.

Does working subsequently full retirement age increment Social Security benefits?

Working after full retirement age could increase your Social Security benefits. Your benefits are based on average wages over your 35 highest-earning years (adjusted for inflation).

Even later on yous've reached full retirement age, and even if yous've already claimed benefits, the Social Security Administration continues to recalculate your average annual wage to business relationship for new income. If your earnings after FRA are higher than previous years and enhance your boilerplate wage for your 35 top-earning years, your benefits could rising appropriately.

Other key questions about full retirement age

There are a few other key things you may need to know nearly total retirement historic period.

Do survivor benefits increase later full retirement historic period?

If you lot are the surviving spouse who is challenge benefits based on your deceased partner'due south work record, there is no benefit to waiting until after FRA to claim your benefits. Yous exercise not earn delayed retirement credits, and so your do good will not increase.

However, if you lot are the higher-earning spouse, delaying your claim for benefits until after FRA tin result in your widow(er) receiving more monthly income, equally your widowed partner will receive the college of the two monthly benefits you were each receiving.

Are Social Security benefits taxable at total retirement age?

Your historic period does non take an touch on on whether yous will owe tax on Social Security benefits. Depending on your earnings, you may pay federal taxes on Social Security benefits regardless of the age at which you claim.

Social Security benefits are taxed on amounts exceeding the "conditional income" limit prepare by the IRS. To calculate your conditional income, add together up all non-Social Security sources of income, including nontaxable income such equally municipal bond interest, and include half of your annual Social Security income.

Single filers earning provisional income between $25,000 and $34,000 and married articulation filers earning between $32,000 and $44,000 will owe income taxes on 50% of their Social Security benefits. For unmarried filers with provisional income above $34,000 and married filers above $44,000, up to 85% of Social Security benefits will exist taxable.

Is your full retirement historic period affected by where you live?

Your FRA is not affected by where you live. Almost Social Security rules, including those that determine benefit amount and claiming historic period, are set by federal law. Nonetheless, some states practise revenue enhancement Social Security benefits, so where y'all live tin can affect tax levels on your retirement income. But again, the historic period at which y'all merits benefits won't affect your taxation rate -- your income is the key factor.

Expert Q&A

The Motley Fool touched base of operations with retirement expert Jialu Streeter, Ph.D., a Enquiry Scholar at the Stanford Center on Longevity.

Jialu Streeter, Ph.D., a Research Scholar at the Stanford Center on Longevity. Jialu's research primarily focuses on the economics of aging, retirement security, and financial security and mental wellbeing of older adults.

Jialu Streeter, Ph.D., a Inquiry Scholar at the Stanford Center on Longevity. Jialu's research primarily focuses on the economics of crumbling, retirement security, and fiscal security and mental wellbeing of older adults.

The Motley Fool: Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, many Americans at present fear they won't be able to retire. What is your advice for someone who may exist worried near retiring because of recent financial setbacks?

Streeter: First, I would suggest the person and their family accept a thorough review of all their assets and debt, including habitation equity, mortgages, student loans (including their children's if they accept co-signed), retirement program balances, and other checking and savings accounts. Second, information technology's important to empathize the implications of retirement age on the Social Security benefits. For some people who are in good health and tin can afford to filibuster Social Security, it might be better for them to delay in society to receive higher benefits for the rest of their lives. Tertiary, the person or family need to have an honest conversation about their envisioned retirement style. E.thousand., will they travel much? Will they dine out or cook at habitation? Lastly, the longevity risk. Whether they will outlive their wealth. People demand to put all these points together in order to see whether they are on rails of a retirement life that they had planned for.