Your filing age plays a big role in determining what monthly Social Security benefit you'll be able to collect in retirement. If you wait until full retirement age, you'll get your complete monthly benefit, based on your personal wage history, without a reduction. Full retirement age is 66, 67, or somewhere in the middle, depending on the year in which you were born.

Many seniors, however, opt to claim Social Security at 62, which is the earliest age to sign up for benefits. The upside in doing so is getting those monthly payments sooner. The downside, of course, is locking in a reduced monthly benefit -- potentially for life.

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Source Fool.com