Q. Is it better to wait until full-retirement age to get full Social Security benefits, or is it better to start at 62?

A. It depends on each individual's situation. Here are five factors to consider.

The 12-Year Rule

The obvious reward for delaying benefits until full-retirement age is a higher monthly check. When full-retirement age was 65--it was for people born before 1938--taking benefits at 62 resulted in a permanent 20 percent reduction in monthly benefit amounts. As full-retirement age gradually increases to 67, the age-62 benefit is gradually decreasing from 80 percent to 70 percent of the full benefit.

Waiting until full-retirement age means a higher monthly benefit for the rest of your life, but it takes about 12 years of drawing the higher benefit amount to make up for losing all those Social Security checks before full-retirement age.

Earnings Limits

Workers who want Social Security benefits before full-retirement age must limit their earnings. In 2003, for example, someone younger than full-retirement age will lose $1 of Social Security benefits for every $2 earned over $11,520. Workers who love their jobs, or can't afford to stop working, wait until full-retirement age to get Social Security.

Taxation of Social Security Benefits

If a married couple's income is over $32,000, a portion of their Social Security benefits will be taxable. That means, of course, that when one spouse keeps working at a good salary while the other draws Social Security, that couple is more likely to pay income taxes on their Social Security benefits. See IRS Publication 915 for more details.

Medicare

Retirees must wait until 65 for Medicare. (There are exceptions only for disability and for chronic kidney disease.) And each individual has to be 65: A younger wife does not qualify for Medicare just because her husband has turned 65.

If an employer's health plan coverage ends upon retirement of the employee, that company's retirees and their spouses must make their own provisions for health insurance until 65. That can be a problem--especially for people who have pre-existing health problems.

Benefits for Survivors

When a worker elects reduces retirement benefits, it limits what his widow (or her widower) can draw. If a worker takes retirement benefits at 62, his widow can't receive more than 82.5 percent of his full Social Security benefit--no matter how long she waits to draw that benefit.

For example, a worker has a full-retirement benefit of $1000. His full-retirement age is 66. If he takes benefits at 62, he'll get $750 per month. After his death, his widow will get no more than $825 per month on his Social Security record.