The choice of when to start receiving Social Security retirement benefits is a difficult one for many people as you can start to collect at age 62, and should do so sometime between age 62 and 70 depending on your circumstances. 

Jack Myers with Social Security tells us you can get personalized estimates of your own benefit amount at various ages through your mySocialSecurity account at www.ssa.gov/myaccount. He adds you should know that your full-retirement age is sometime between 65-67 depending on the year you were born but the significance of full retirement age is two-fold - benefits paid prior to FRA are permanently reduced for age and you’re also subject to an earnings limit if you want to work and collect Social Security benefits prior to FRA.  

Once you reach full retirement age you can work as much as you want and still collect your retirement benefits. If you start to collect your benefit at full retirement age it will be unreduced. If you wait beyond the full retirement age to start collecting your benefit, it will increase because of delayed retirement credits until age 70. 

You should apply for your retirement benefits to start at age 70 by visiting ssa.gov or calling 800-772-1213 and monitoring those benefits by visiting ssa.gov/myaccount.