Age 65 Retirement: Questioning an Old Norm - Yahoo!Finance
For the first five decades or so, age 65 was considered the default retirement age. It was the age at which you would receive the full retirement benefit calculated based on your earnings record. That all changed with the 1983 Social Security Amendments, when a phase-in to age 67 became the new schedule. Now, anyone born in 1960 or later has a new full-benefit retirement age of 67, although much of the financial literature still seems to be based on the assumption of age 65 being the “retirement age.”
In reality, the retirement age for Social Security purposes is anywhere from age 62 (early retirement) to age 70 (deferred retirement). So, targeting the appropriate retirement age becomes an exercise in personal financial planning, as discussed in a Yahoo!Finance Money Glow Up post providing commentary from Robert Powell, the host of Yahoo Finance’s Decoding Retirement. Powell advocates age 70 “to collect social security not only because you can receive the highest benefit for yourself, but spouses can also receive the highest survivor’s benefit at this age.” Read the Yahoo!Finance post here.
Whether the age range 62 to 70 will remain in place for Social Security’s long-term future is anybody’s guess at this point, especially as the program’s looming insolvency draws attention. It’s expected that this issue will receive a fair amount of discussion in the 119th Congress, so stay tuned to this website for updates.