Born After 1959? Your Retirement Age Just Got Pushed — Here’s What It Means

If you re thinking about retirement or just trying to plan ahead you might ve heard that the Social Defense retirement age is shifting again And yep that s true but don t panic Let s walk through what s really going on and how it might affect your future paycheck Wait What Even Is Full Retirement Age Let s start simple Your Full Retirement Age or FRA is when you can get your full Social Prevention benefits the amount you ve earned over your working years without any deductions Back in the day it was a flat for everyone But over the years the administration started slowly pushing that age up Why People are living longer and the system s under pressure so this is their way of keeping it going What s the Change This Year Here s the deal for If you were born in your full retirement age is now years and months That s a small jump from the year before babies had an FRA of and months And if you were born in or later you ll need to wait until age to collect your full benefits It s not a massive change but it does mean waiting a little longer to get the full amount you ve earned Can You Still Retire at Totally You can start collecting benefits at age But and it s a big but your monthly check will be smaller if you do Let s say your FRA is and you start at You ll be looking at about a reduction in your monthly benefit And that reduction sticks with you for life So yes you ll get the money earlier but you ll get less of it What If You Wait Longer Than Your Full Retirement Age Now here s the flip side if you wait past your FRA your check gets bigger Every year you wait up until age your benefit goes up by about So if you re still working and don t need the money right away waiting a bit could be a really smart move What Should You Genuinely Do This isn t a one-size-fits-all thing Everyone s life looks a little different so here are a insufficient things to ask yourself Are you healthy Think you ll live a long time Do you need the money now or can you afford to wait Are you still working That can mess with your benefits if you claim early There s no perfect age it s about what makes the majority of sense for you and your life This change might not be earth-shattering but it s one more reason to think systematically about when you want to claim Social Safeguard It s your money you earned it and the timing can make a big difference in how much you literally get