4 Social Security Rules It Pays to Understand
Social Security serves as a lifeline for millions of seniors today, and if you're retiring in the near future, there's a good chance you'll count on it heavily, too. The more you know about how Social Security works, the better positioned you'll be to make smart decisions with your filing, so with that in mind, here are a few essential rules to commit to memory.
Seniors can start collecting Social Security as early as age 62, but if you go that route, you'll slash your benefits for life. Your actual monthly benefit is calculated by taking your average monthly wage, adjusted for inflation, over your 35 highest-paid years in the workforce, but you're not entitled to that full monthly benefit until you reach full retirement age.
Full retirement age hinges on the year you were born, as per the following table:
Source Fool.com
