If you were born in 1960, there is no longer any way around it: your full retirement age is 67.
The Social Security Administration's long-running phase-in wrapped up this year, meaning everyone born from 1960 onward now needs to reach 67 to collect their full benefit.
Anyone born in 1959 or earlier got a slightly earlier exit — 66 and 10 months for the 1959 cohort.
Claiming at 62 instead of 67 permanently cuts your monthly check by 30%.
On a $2,000 full benefit, that's $600 less every month — roughly $7,200 a year — for the rest of your life, with only modest annual cost-of-living adjustments applied to the smaller base.
The math cuts the other way too, and this is where most people leave money on the table.
Waiting until 70 adds delayed retirement credits of 8% per year past your full retirement age.
For someone born in 1960, that's a 24% boost over the age-67 amount.
A benefit that would have been $2,000 at 67 becomes about $2,480 at 70.
Job loss after 60 is one of the hardest setbacks to recover from, and a layoff at 63 often pushes people to file simply to keep the lights on.
Health problems, caregiving for a spouse, and mortgage payments that didn't shrink with inflation all play a role.
Many workers assume they'll never see their money if they wait, so they grab what they can.
But Social Security is designed so that total lifetime payouts roughly even out around age 80 to 82, depending on the claiming age.
Live past that — and a 67-year-old today has decent odds — and waiting wins.
The break-even math is worth running with your actual numbers.
A 62-year-old claiming a reduced $1,400 monthly benefit reaches about $117,600 in cumulative payments by 82.
Someone waiting to 67 for $2,000 hits that same total around age 77 and keeps pulling ahead every month after.
Spouses and survivors should pay extra attention.
Survivor benefits are based on what the deceased worker was receiving or entitled to, so the higher earner delaying can protect the surviving spouse for decades.
That's often the single biggest retirement decision a married couple makes, and it rarely gets discussed at the kitchen table.
For anyone still working, the practical move is to check your my Social Security account and look at your estimated benefits at 62, 67, and 70.
Then compare them against your actual savings, expected expenses, and how long you realistically plan to work.
The gap between the three numbers is usually far larger than people expect.
One more wrinkle: if you claim before your full retirement age and keep working, the earnings test can temporarily withhold part of your benefit — $1 withheld for every $2 earned above the annual limit.
That money comes back later through a higher monthly payment, but the short-term sting catches many new claimants off guard.
The retirement age didn't rise overnight.
Congress set this schedule in 1983, giving workers four decades of warning.
Still, millions of Americans are now discovering that 65 — the number their parents retired at — is no longer the finish line. **The takeaway:** Treat 67 as the baseline, not the goal.
Final Thoughts
For most people who can manage it, waiting past full retirement age is the cheapest longevity insurance available, and it's the rare retirement decision you can still change right up until the month you file.