Full Retirement Age Calculator: When Do You Reach It?
Your full retirement age is 67 if you were born in 1960 or later, 66 if you were born from 1943 to 1954, and 66 plus 2 to 10 months if you were born from 1955 to 1959. Social Security counts you as reaching an age the day before your birthday, so someone born on January 1 uses the previous year’s full retirement age, and someone born on the 1st of any month reaches each age a month earlier than the calendar suggests.
Enter your date of birth to see the exact month for each Social Security milestone.
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Full retirement age calculator
Your exact Social Security months from your date of birth, using Social Security’s own age rules.
Full retirement age by year of birth
| Year of birth | Full retirement age | Survivor full retirement age |
|---|---|---|
| 1943 | 66 | 65 and 8 months |
| 1944 | 66 | 65 and 10 months |
| 1945 to 1954 | 66 | 66 |
| 1955 | 66 and 2 months | 66 |
| 1956 | 66 and 4 months | 66 |
| 1957 | 66 and 6 months | 66 and 2 months |
| 1958 | 66 and 8 months | 66 and 4 months |
| 1959 | 66 and 10 months | 66 and 6 months |
| 1960 | 67 | 66 and 8 months |
| 1961 | 67 | 66 and 10 months |
| 1962 and later | 67 | 67 |
Swipe sideways to see the full table →
Both columns follow the full retirement age rules, and the retirement column matches Social Security’s retirement age calculator, which asks only for your birth year. The survivor column runs two years behind, so a widow or widower born from 1957 to 1961 reaches full survivor benefits up to four months earlier than full retirement benefits. Congress set these ages in 1983, and no law since has changed them.
How the calculator finds your months
- Each age is reached the day before your birthday. Someone born on June 15, 1960 reaches 67 on June 14, 2027, so June 2027 is their first month of full benefits.
- Retirement and spousal benefits at 62 need you to be 62 for the whole month. Unless you were born on the 1st or 2nd, your earliest month is the one after your 62nd birthday: born June 15, 1960, that’s July 2022, at 70.4% instead of 70%.
- Born on the 2nd, you reach 62 on the 1st of your birthday month, so that month counts.
- Born on the 1st, you reach every age at the end of the previous month. Someone born February 1, 1960 reaches full retirement age in January 2027.
- Survivor benefits don’t need the whole month. A widow or widower can start in the month they reach 60, the rule for survivors only.
When the first payment arrives
Social Security pays each month’s benefit in the following month. When the application asks when you want benefits to start, it means the month you’re paid for, not the month the money arrives. Choose June and your first payment comes in July. Picking the month you want the deposit is a common way to lose a month’s benefit, and before full retirement age it can’t be paid back for earlier months.
You can apply up to 4 months before the month you choose, and Social Security’s first payment planner works backward from the deposit month you want. Payments arrive on the second, third or fourth Wednesday depending on whether the worker was born on the 1st to 10th, 11th to 20th, or later in the month. Spouses and children on the same record are paid on the worker’s day. People who started benefits before May 1997, or who also get SSI, are paid on the 3rd.
If you’re 65 or older and enrolled in Medicare Part B, the premium comes out of each payment.
Medicare doesn’t wait for full retirement age
Medicare starts at 65 even though full retirement age is later. Your Initial Enrollment Period runs for 7 months: 3 months before the month you turn 65, that month, and 3 months after. Premium-free Part A starts the month you turn 65, or the month before if you were born on the 1st. If you aren’t getting Social Security yet, you have to sign up yourself; missing the window without other qualifying coverage can mean a lifelong Part B penalty.
The year you reach full retirement age
If you start benefits before full retirement age and keep working, the earnings limit applies. In the calendar year you reach full retirement age, a higher limit counts only earnings before your full retirement age month: $65,160 in 2026 and $67,920 in 2027, with $1 withheld for every $3 above it. From your full retirement age month on, there’s no limit, and any months withheld are credited back by raising your benefit.
After full retirement age
Each month you wait past full retirement age adds 2/3 of 1% to your benefit, up to 124% for a full retirement age of 67. The credits stop at 70, so the calculator’s age 70 month is the last one worth waiting for. If you apply after full retirement age, you can ask for up to 6 months of benefits back, but not for months before full retirement age, because that would reduce the benefit for life. The early retirement reduction for any month between 62 and full retirement age follows 5/9 of 1% a month for the first 36 months early and 5/12 of 1% beyond that.