Social Security: Full Retirement Age Explained - YouTube

Today's cardinal lesson is to talk about what is  full retirement age for Social Security, and the  

reason we're talking about such what is really  a simple subject that you can look on a chart  

is after years of doing this type of retirement  planning and having people coming in to us,  

many of them just going on Medicare, a lot of  folks are misunderstanding this, that they think  

full retirement age is 65 and it's not anymore.  I mean it was for about 60 years in the Social  

Security system, from the 30s up until the 80s,  it was full retirement age was 65 and, you just,  

it was the same time that you started Medicare and  then most people would start their Social Security  

check. Now back in the eighties, you know, under  Ronald Reagan, they did, where they where they  

shored up the Social Security system because it  was facing some challenges just like it is now,  

where there's not enough money in the trust  fund to cover all the future benefits, so they,  

what they proposed was a moving from 65 to 67,  and they phased it in over like 35 or 40 years,  

and so we're right in the middle of that right  now. So the people born actually before 1943,  

it was something we don't really need to worry  about them, but from the 1943 to 1954 birthdays,  

which is 10 years of birthdays, the retirement  full retirement age was 66, and then 1955's,  

which my co-host on the radio show that's his  year of birth, 66 and two months. Now you don't  

really need to spend a lot of time on this,  is if you get your Social Security statement,  

right up on the top of it it's gonna say what  your full retirement age is, you know mine  

born in 1958, it's 66 and eight months, so I just  want to clear that up for a lot of folks that are  

coming up on that is you can start your Social  Security really as early as 62, so even before  

65. You can delay it as long as 70, but this age,  or this point in time, still matters. There's  

actually 96 different dates for each person, for  you, of when you can start your Social Security,  

starting with your 62nd birthday and ending  with your 70th birthday. Now the reason that  

this date matters is it is your full retirement  age, and that means that you can start your check  

and you're going to get your full benefit, and  that is right on your Social Security, at least  

an estimate, on your Social Security statement it  says this is full benefit at full retirement age.  

If you started earlier than that date, you got  a couple of problems with that. Number one,  

you're going to get less and you're going to get  less for life, so if you started early. The second  

thing is if you earn money from a job before  full retirement age, taking Social Security,  

you're going to have to give some of it back,  that's a kind of a complicated formula, you really  

want to avoid that. If you wait till this age to  start it and you start it exactly at this age,  

you're going to get the full benefit and you  won't have, you can make all the money you  

want at a job, so you can do this still working,  or you can delay out to 70, or approaching 70,  

and then you're going to get more and you're  going to get more for life. So a lot of folks are  

working longer and they're delaying their Social  Security so they'll get more, or their surviving  

spouse will get more, for the rest of their life,  so this is an important thing as a baseline,  

doesn't mean you ought to start your Social  Security at this point, it's just you need to  

know what this date is, we need to know what this  date is if we're doing financial planning for you.  

I make reference to all this in my books, I'm  Hans Scheil and I thank you for listening.