Attention, Retirees: This Could Be the Most Important Thing You Do Before Claiming Social Security

One nice feature of Social Security is that it gives you a choice about when to sign up. You can claim your benefits as early as age 62 if you so choose. Or, you could wait until full retirement age to collect your complete monthly benefit based on your personal wage history without a reduction. If you were born in 1960 or later, full retirement age is 67.

There's also the option to delay your Social Security claim past full retirement age. For each year you do, until age 70, your monthly benefit grows 8%.

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Because your filing age helps determine how much money Social Security gives you each month, it's important to put a lot of thought into signing up. But there's one more essential move to make before claiming Social Security. The good news? It's a super easy one.

Know what numbers you're dealing with

You may be aware that claiming Social Security before full retirement age causes your monthly benefit to be reduced. And you may know that a delayed filing puts more money in your pocket each month.

But if you don't know what specific numbers you're working with, you can't easily make the right decision. So rather than being in the dark, get that information.

All you need to do is create an account on the Social Security Administration's website. From there, you'll get access to your personal earnings statement.

That document contains crucial financial information that's specific to you. Not only will it show an estimate of your monthly Social Security benefit at full retirement age, it will also give you a rundown of what your benefit looks like at different filing ages. This way, you can see how much of a reduction or increase you may be looking at, depending on when you're thinking of signing up.

Having that information is so important, because you may, for example, be considering an early filing to get your money sooner. But once you see just how much of a reduction results, it could change your mind.

Similarly, you may not be all that motivated to delay your Social Security claim. But if you see that waiting results in a large increase, that might push you to hold off -- even if it means having to work a few extra years instead of retiring at full retirement age like you may have initially planned.

A big retirement decision to make

Choosing a Social Security filing age could end up being one of the biggest financial decisions you'll ever make, and it's one that's going to shape your retirement in a very big way.

So rather than make that decision based on partial information, get all the details on your personal Social Security benefit so you know what to expect. Once you see those numbers in front of you, you can use them to map out an actual Social Security budget based on your anticipated expenses. That should make it easier to come to a decision on when to file.

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