When to retire is one of those important milestone decisions that every worker will have to make in their career. It is an important choice as it will shape the Social Security benefits they receive until they pass, so making the right for you is key in this milestone.

Every year workers reach their full retirement age and decide to take stock of their career, life, and options, and decide whether this will lead them to retirement or if they will continue to work for a few more years.

Some may have even done this process years before and be retired already by the time their full retirement age rolls around, so for those who are already collecting benefits, this might not be the article you need. For those who are still in the workforce and wish to have more information, read on to find out whether 2025 will be the year that sees you collect your first benefit check.

Collecting Social Security in 2025 at full retirement age

Although in the introduction we have talked about the full retirement age, that is not the only age at which a worker can collect retirement benefits.

The earliest age a worker can claim benefits is 62, which means that those born in 1963 can begin to claim benefits this year. Having said that, there is a massive drawback to this early claim, which is that benefits would be permanently reduced by 30% of what they would have been at full retirement age.

As a representation of what that could mean for a worker, according to the Social Security Administration, “if you retire at full retirement age in 2024, your maximum benefit would be $3,822. However, if you retire at age 62 in 2024, your maximum benefit would be $2,710.”

The difference is quite noticeable, and although there are many reasons why a worker may want to advance their retirement age and begin collecting benefits sooner rather than later, if you are not part of that group, knowing when exactly to claim will be valuable information.

Full retirement age nowadays is a bit misleading, as there is no one age at which any worker will arrive and suddenly be eligible for 100% of their primary insurance amount (PIA) or full retirement benefit. This is because the full retirement age has been steadily increasing since 1984 when the Social Security program collapsed for the first time.

Rising full retirement is one of the measures that they put forth to avoid future collapses, and because the increase was so gradual, it has not finished being implemented yet. The increase was meant to take the full retirement age from the original 65 set in 1935 to 67 years old for those born in 1960 or later. For those who want to know exactly when they will reach their full retirement age, the table below will help.

If you were born in:	You reach full retirement age in:
May 1958	January 2025
June 1958	February 2025
July 1958	March 2025
August 1958	April 2025
September 1958	May 2025
October 1958	June 2025
November 1958	July 2025
December 1958	August 2025
—	September 2025
—	October 2025
January 1959	November 2025
February 1959	December 2025

To be safe remember that you need to claim benefits no sooner than four months before the date your benefits are scheduled to start, and so to be even safer, try to claim as close as possible to your full retirement age, that way the Social Security Administration will have enough time to process benefits and you will have turned your full retirement and not lost benefits in the process.