Retirement resources — videos & guides

For anyone born in 1960 or later, full retirement age (FRA) is 67. If you were born in 1959, your FRA is 66 and 10 months. This is the age at which you receive 100% of the benefit you've earned. You can claim as early as 62 — but your benefit is permanently reduced by about 30%. You can delay to 70 — increasing your benefit by 8% per year past FRA, up to 24% more.

It depends on four things: your health and family longevity, whether you need the income now, whether you're married, and whether you're still working. The break-even point — where waiting until 70 overtakes claiming at 62 — falls around age 80 to 81 for most people. If you're in good health with other income to draw from, delaying usually wins. If your health is a genuine concern or you need the money, claiming earlier can be the right call. For married couples, the higher earner waiting protects the surviving spouse for life.

If you're under full retirement age for all of 2026, the earnings limit is $24,480 — above that, Social Security withholds $1 for every $2 you earn. In the year you reach FRA, the limit is much higher at $65,160, with $1 withheld for every $3 over. Once you reach full retirement age, there is no earnings limit at all — you can earn any amount with no reduction. Withheld benefits aren't lost; they're recalculated into a higher benefit once you reach FRA.

Your Initial Enrollment Period is a 7-month window — the three months before your 65th birthday, your birthday month, and three months after. Miss it without qualifying employer coverage and you face a permanent penalty: 10% added to your Part B premium for every year you delayed. If you have qualifying coverage from an employer with 20+ employees, you get an 8-month Special Enrollment Period after that coverage ends. The 2026 standard Part B premium is $202.90/month.

Yes. IRMAA — the income-related surcharge on Part B and Part D — is based on your income from two years ago. If your income has dropped because of a life-changing event like retirement, the loss of a spouse, or divorce, you can appeal using Form SSA-44 to have it recalculated on your current, lower income. The 2026 IRMAA thresholds start at $109,000 for individuals and $218,000 for married couples filing jointly.

RMDs from traditional IRAs and 401(k)s now begin at age 73. Your first distribution must be taken by April 1 of the year after you turn 73; every year after, the deadline is December 31. Missing an RMD triggers a steep 25% penalty on the amount you should have withdrawn (reducible to 10% if corrected promptly). Roth IRAs are not subject to RMDs during your lifetime. The years between retirement and 73 are also the ideal window for Roth conversions.

Fidelity's benchmark is 10 times your annual salary by age 67. But that assumes average spending and a retirement starting at 67. A more personal approach: estimate your annual retirement spending, subtract your expected Social Security and any pension, and divide the remaining gap by 0.04 (the 4% withdrawal rule). That gives a savings target grounded in your actual situation rather than a national average. Retiring earlier raises the number; a pension or paid-off home lowers it.

Partially. Social Security applies an annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) — 2.8% for 2026. But because COLAs are calculated from prior-year inflation, they tend to lag real conditions, and research shows benefits lost about 20% of their buying power between 2010 and 2024. This is one reason delaying Social Security has outsized value: a larger base benefit means every future COLA is applied to a bigger number.