Social Security at Different Ages: Understanding Average Benefits
The longer you can wait to start taking your government retirement benefits, the bigger your monthly payments will be.
Most people understand that the size of their eventual Social Security payments will be closely linked to the amount of taxable income they earn while working -- the more money you make (up to a point), the more you pay in FICA taxes, and the more you get from the program each month when you retire.
That's only one part of your future benefit calculation though, and given that our salaries are in large measure not under our control, it may not be the most consequential part.
What you'll have more control over is the age at which you initiate your Social Security retirement benefits, and that will be a major factor in their size as well. The younger you are when you claim, the smaller your checks will be. The longer you delay taking your payments, on the other hand, the bigger those checks will be.
