Greater Hartford retirement planning is going to involved gaining an understanding about the ins and outs of the Social Security program. The first question that most people are going to ask would involve the age of eligibility. People who were born in 1954 and earlier than that are going to reach full retirement age according to the Social Security Administration when they celebrate their 66th birthdays.

The age at which you qualify for your full retirement benefit then goes up by two months per year until 1960. Everyone who was born during 1960 and after becomes eligible to receive their full Social Security benefit at the age of 67.

You may wonder if you are allowed to earn income after you start receiving Social Security without suffering any type of penalty. If you wait until you reach full retirement age before you start receiving a benefit you can in fact earn any amount of money without a penalty being imposed with regard to your monthly benefit amount.

However, you can choose to retire early, but if you do this you must accept a reduced benefit. 62 is the youngest age at which you can apply for Social Security. If you do accept the reduced benefit it is cut by one dollar for every two dollars that you earn above a particular limit. This limit is subject to change but at the current time it is $14,160.

The best way to gain a full understanding of all of the details surrounding Social Security benefits is to visit the Social Security Administration website. The site offers a lot of good information and interactive tools that are quite useful to people who are looking forward toward their retirement years.