If you were born in 1960 or later, your full retirement age is 67.
That single number decides whether your monthly check arrives whole, reduced, or boosted — and a surprising share of Americans still guess wrong when asked.
The Social Security Administration sets full retirement age, or FRA, based on birth year.
Anyone born from 1943 to 1954 hit it at 66.
It then ticked up two months per year until landing at 67 for everyone born in 1960 and after.
Claiming earlier permanently shrinks your benefit; waiting past FRA grows it by roughly 8% annually until age 70.
The penalty for claiming at 62 is steeper than most people realize.
At 62, a worker with an FRA of 67 collects 70% of their full benefit for life.
On a $2,000 full benefit, that's the difference between $1,400 and $2,480 every month.
For married couples, the stakes multiply.
A higher earner who delays can lift not just their own check but also the survivor benefit their spouse eventually receives.
That's often the single biggest retirement decision a household makes, and it's easy to get wrong by filing the moment you stop working.
There's no penalty for working while collecting once you reach FRA.
Before FRA, though, earnings above an annual limit — $23,400 in 2025 — trigger withholding of $1 for every $2 over the cap.
That money isn't lost forever; it's recalculated into your benefit later, but the short-term hit catches retirees off guard.
Cost-of-living adjustments add another wrinkle.
COLAs apply to your benefit whether you claim at 62 or 70, so waiting doesn't cost you inflation protection.
What waiting does cost is time — and that's the trade-off every worker has to weigh against health, job stability, and savings.
The system's long-term funding shortfall is real, but it doesn't change your FRA.
Current law ties the retirement age to birth year, not to trust fund balances.
Proposals to raise it further have floated around Washington for years without becoming law, so planning around today's rules is still the practical move.
The simplest first step: pull your statement at ssa.gov and find your personal FRA and projected benefit at 62, 67, and 70.
Seeing those three numbers side by side tends to end the guessing fast.
Our take: the retirement age debate gets framed as a political fight, but for most households it's a math problem with a deadline.
Final Thoughts
Knowing your FRA won't make the decision easy, but it stops you from leaving tens of thousands of dollars on the table by accident.