Planning to Claim Social Security at 65? You May Need to Rethink That
When it comes to signing up for Social Security, you have a number of options. You can file for benefits as early as age 62 (albeit in exchange for a reduced payment), wait until your full retirement age, or FRA, (which spans the ages of 66 to 67, depending on year of birth), or delay your filing all the way until age 70 to score the maximum boost. In fact, you can file for benefits at any age starting at 62, and many seniors opt to sign up at the age of 65.
Age 65 is when Medicare eligibility begins, and so some seniors figure it's convenient to sign up for both programs at once. To be clear, filing for Social Security at 65 will reduce your monthly benefit, and the extent of which will depend on your FRA. If your FRA is 67, you'll face a 13.34% cut in your Social Security payments by claiming them at 65. But still, that's not nearly as drastic a cut as what you'd face by filing at 62. In that case, you'd be looking at a 30% reduction with an FRA of 67.
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Source Fool.com
