If I start drawing Social Security at age 66 and 2 months, is this the full max benefits?

Hi. If you were born in 1955, thus making your full retirement age (FRA) 66 & 2 months, then you would be paid a monthly rate equal to 100% of your primary insurance amount (PIA). That isn't the maximum amount that you could draw, however.

First off, your PIA is based on an average of your highest 35 years of Social Security covered wage-indexed earnings. So, if you continue working and if you earn more in a year than you did in one of your previous highest 35 years, you can increase your PIA and your resulting benefit rate.

Furthermore, your monthly Social Security retirement benefit rate would be higher if you simply wait past your FRA to start drawing your benefits. Social Security adds delayed retirement credits (DRC) to a person's benefit rate for each month that they don't collect their Social Security retirement benefits from FRA until age 70. DRCs amount to 2/3rds of 1% per month, or 8% per year. Therefore, if your FRA is 66 & 2 months and if you wait until age 70 to start drawing your retirement benefits, your monthly benefit rate would increase to roughly 130.66% of your PIA.

You may want to strongly consider using our software (https://maximizemysocialsecurity.com/purchase) to fully analyze all of your options in order to determine your best strategy for maximizing your benefits.

Best, Jerry