The very first thing to understand when it comes to maximizing your benefits is the importance of what is referred to as your full retirement age.

More often than not this age will play a key role in just about every strategy for maximizing benefits as well as the potential traps that can reduce benefits. But don’t make the mistake of thinking that your full retirement age is always the best time to start your benefits. It might be, but in many situations a person could gain an advantage by starting benefits later or even earlier then their full retirement age.

In this lesson’s six-minute video you will see how the benefit start age can have a different impact on those who are single, married, divorced, or widowed.