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 When is the Right Retirement Age for You?

Social Security was established with its original intention to provide elder Americans with continuing income after the time they need or want to stop working. Retirement benefits are still the foundation and most important, sought out benefits of the program though today Social Security has already widened its scope to include benefits for survivors, disabled people, etc.

It is important to understand how a person qualifies for retirement benefits. If a person works and pays Social Security taxes, he earns Social Security credits. He can alternative medicine up to four credits each year. If a person is born after 1928, he needs 40 credits (10 years of work) to be eligible for retirement benefits.

A person’s retirement benefits are based on his average earnings over his entire working career. Higher lifetime earnings equal to higher benefits so it only make sense that should there be any years of low or no earnings, the benefits will be lower than if working was done continuously. A person’s age by the time he starts receiving benefits also the amount. The longer a person waits for retirement (up to age 70), the higher the amount of retirement benefit is. A person has a choice though whether or not he waits because he can retire as early as age 62.

Of course, it is just logical that retiring early reduces a person’s benefits. Full retirement age is at 70 but a person can begin receiving Social Security benefits as early as age 62. The retirement benefit will be reduced by 5/9ths of 1 percent for every month between a person’s date and his full retirement age, for up to 36 months then by 5/12ths of 1 percent thereafter. Such reduction is permanent – there can be no benefit increase even by the time one reaches full retirement age.

For each month that a person delays retirement pat his full retirement age, his benefits will increase by a certain percentage. This percentage varies depending on his year of birth. Working after full retirement age another benefit: It allows a person to add years of earnings to his Social Security record. As a result, he may receive higher benefits when he retires, especially if his earnings are higher than in previous years.

The aforementioned laws may seem simple and trivial but when the numbers come in, a beneficiary will definitely feel the time of retirement’s effects. Some find it sensible to reap the fruits he sowed early on, to savor it – after years of hard work he deserves it anyway. However, some do believe that good things come to people who wait. Extra bonus in a person’s lifetime can make a huge difference.

We have labor and social security laws to protect the rights of the employees. Should there be any inquiries regarding such laws, an employee contemplating of retiring must a social security retirement benefits attorney to make him fully understand his rights and know how to make the best out of it.