Determining what age to begin taking Social Security is a crucial retirement decision, as it will affect your monthly income for the rest of your life.

Age 62 is the earliest you can begin claiming benefits, but filing at this age will slash your monthly payments by up to 30%. Delaying benefits until age 70, on the other hand, will give you a massive boost -- sometimes resulting in hundreds of dollars more per month.

There are merits to both claiming early and delaying, so there's no single correct age to file. That said, researchers have crunched the numbers to see what age would benefit the most people -- and there's a very clear-cut answer.

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Source Fool.com