Social Security Rolls Rapidly Expanding
Current demographic statistics indicate that senior citizens are the most rapidly growing segment of the United States population. This is the reality as we speak, but additional members of the baby boomer generation are continually reaching the age of 65 on a daily basis. In fact, recent news stories have highlighted the rather stunning statistic that no fewer than 10,000 people are applying for Social Security for the first time every day. That’s a pretty long line, but you would imagine it will thin out soon right? Well…not really; analysts expect 10,000 new applicants for Social Security every day for the next 20 years.
With so many people reaching retirement age at the same time there are a lot of questions about Social Security eligibility. It is sometimes assumed that you become eligible for Social Security at the age of 65, but this is not the case anymore. All Americans are eligible for Medicare once they reach 65 years of age, but the full retirement age for the purposes of collecting Social Security benefits varies depending on when you were born.
If you were born between 1943 in 1954 your full retirement age is 66. It then goes up by two months per year until 1960; for those who were born in 1960 or sooner 67 will be the full retirement age. You do not have to apply for Social Security when you reach the full retirement age. You can continue working and put it off until you reach the age of 70 if you so choose. In so doing you would build delayed retirement credits that would increase the amount of your Social Security benefits when you do file. For those born in 1943 or later the increase would be 8% per year for each year of deferral.
The United States Social Security Administration website is an excellent resource that is available to anyone who is interested in learning more about Social Security. You can take advantage of their tools and even apply for Social Security online at SocialSecurity.gov.
