The Most Important Social Security Table You'll Ever See
Social Security is a big deal, helping to support almost 68 million Americans, with its benefits making up roughly 30% of the income of folks over 65. Even more sobering are these details from the Social Security Administration: "Among Social Security beneficiaries age 65 and older, 12% of men and 15% of women rely on Social Security for 90% or more of their income."
Clearly, Social Security benefits are likely to be very important, if not critical, to most of us. It's smart then to try to maximize your Social Security benefits, and picking the best time to claim Social Security is a key way to do so. You can start as early as age 62, but that will result in shrunken checks (though many more of them), or you can delay until age 70, with each year you delay beyond your full retirement age (66 or 67 for most of us) boosting your benefits by about 8%.
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Source Fool.com
