A lot of people have a plan that sounds something like this. Retire at 60, live off savings

and investments, then turn on Social Security when the time is right. It sounds clean, but most

people don't realize that that decision to retire at 60 has already changed your Social Security

benefit without you even collecting yet. This video is going to show you what those costs are,

and it's going to show you a smarter way to approach this decision. As we get started, let's make a very clear distinction here.

Retiring at 60 and collecting Social Security at 60 are two completely different things.

You cannot actually collect Social Security at 60 unless it's a survivor benefit, in which case you can.

But what we're talking about in this video is you

who are going to retire at 60 but aren't going to collect your actual benefit for a few more years.

What does that retirement decision do to the actual benefit you're eligible to collect?

To fully understand what retiring at 60 is going to cost you, we first need to understand

how social security benefits are calculated.

Social Security calculates what's called your primary insurance amount. So the amount that you

will receive at your full retirement age, which for many of you watching this video is going

to be age 67, there's a formula that determines that. And that formula takes to look at your

35 highest years of earnings. Social Security is going to take your

wages every year, adjust them for inflation, and those wages are then used to calculate how much

are you eligible for at your full retirement age. So that's how the benefits calculated, but you first

need to hit an initial threshold to even be eligible for benefits.

Now, the threshold is very low.

You have to have 40 quarters of earnings.

Now, here's how low this bar is.

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