Deciding when to claim Social Security has lifelong financial implications. It can impact the income you receive until you die, and even beyond if you have a spouse receiving survivor benefits. It’s not a decision to make lightly.

If you’re considering claiming Social Security in 2025, there’s one key thing you absolutely must do first to make certain that you aren’t left with regrets. Here’s what you need to do.

Don’t claim Social Security in 2025 without doing this

Before claiming Social Security in the upcoming year, the number one thing you must do is to check your full retirement age (FRA). This is crucial because you must start your checks at exactly your full retirement age in order to receive your standard benefit. That’s the benefit that you are entitled to based on an average of your earnings over your 35 highest earning years.

When you claim Social Security at full retirement age, you don’t have to worry about early filing penalties that result in a reduction of your check. These early filing penalties reduce the payments you get by 5/9 of 1% for each of the first 36 months you claim benefits early. This adds up to a 6.7% benefits reduction per year. If you claim Social Security more than 36 months ahead of your FRA, you face a penalty of 5/12 of 1%. This is another 5% you’ll lose per year.

These penalties may sound small, but they aren’t. The earliest age you can claim Social Security is 62. If you have an FRA of 67 and claim at 62, you will reduce your standard benefit by 30%. That’s a huge hit to take over the rest of your life.

It’s also important to know that if you wait beyond FRA, you get delayed retirement credits. Those add up to 2/3 of 1% per month, which gives you a total benefits boost of 8% for each year you delay. You can earn credits until 70, so knowing your full retirement age and making the decision to wait beyond it could result in as much as a 24% benefits bump if FRA is 67 and you wait until 70.

Knowing your full retirement age is so important to your Social Security claiming choice because, armed with this data, you’ll be able to estimate the income Social Security will provide if you claim it in 2025 based on how old you’ll be next year. You can decide whether to move forward with your claim or to delay, depending on what your decision will do to your monthly check.

What is your full retirement age?

So, now you know why knowing FRA is so important — but what is your full retirement age exactly? It depends on your birth year. Here’s when yours is:

• If you were born in 1960 or later, FRA is 67
• If you were born in 1959, FRA is 66 and 10 months
• If you were born in 1958, FRA is 66 and 8 months
• If you were born in 1957, FRA is 66 and 6 months
• If you were born in 1956, FRA is 66 and 4 months
• If you were born in 1955, FRA is 66 and 2 months
• If you were born in 1943 – 1954, FRA is 66

Full retirement age was shifted later by Social Security reforms in the 1980s but the changes were phased in over time. This means that current workers have had to wait a little longer than their older peers to be eligible for their standard benefits.

Since you now know your FRA, you can see whether a Social Security benefits claim in 2025 would entitle you to your standard benefit or to a larger or smaller one. You can consider whether you’d prefer more smaller checks or fewer larger ones, and make an informed claiming decision you won’t regret.

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