I will be 66 on september 2018, and today is April 2018 i am qualified to file retirement now. thanks

Hi,

The soonest that you can apply is 4 months prior to the month that you want to claim benefits. So, assuming that you mean you want to claim benefits starting with your full retirement age (FRA) the earliest that you could apply is May 2018 unless you happen to have been born on September 1st. In that case, your FRA for Social Security benefits would be August, and you could then file this month (i.e. April).

Before filing, though, you may want to strongly consider using our maximization software to compare your options and identify your best strategy.

Best, Jerry