How to Quickly Estimate Your Social Security Payment at Various Ages

Deciding when to begin receiving Social Security is a personal decision, but that decision shouldn't be made without a clear understanding of the pros and cons associated with claiming early, on time, or late. A lot goes into figuring out how much money you'll receive in Social Security every month, but if you're fast-approaching retirement, the single biggest influence on the size of your Social Security check will be when you decide to start receiving benefits.

Read on to see how much money you can expect to collect in Social Security at different ages.

The earliest you can sign up for Social Security is age 62. However, you won't receive 100% of your benefit unless you wait until your full retirement age to sign up. Full retirement used to be age 66, but it's increasing and it's currently age 66 and 4 months. It will continue to increase by two months per year until it reaches age 67 for people born in or after 1960.

Source: Fool.com