For your whole working life, you've paid your Social Security taxes.

Now, if you’re age 62 or older, you’re eligible to start receiving your earned Social Security retirement annuity.

But it’s not “free money.” Your decision on when to begin receiving Social Security checks has some long-term consequences you need to think about before making your election.

When can I start taking Social Security? You can start drawing your check anytime between age 62 and age 70. If you start drawing it before your “full retirement age,” your benefit will be reduced. Full retirement age can vary, depending on what year you were born. For people born between 1943 and 1954, full retirement age is 66 years. If you were born in 1956, it’s 66 years and 4 months. Calculate what it is for you.

How does the timing of my election affect the amount I will get? In general, the older you are when you start taking Social Security (until age 70), the larger your check will be. You can estimate the amount of your benefit using the online calculator.

What is the penalty for taking Social Security before my full retirement age? The amount of your benefit will be reduced by 5/9 of 1 percent for each month before your full retirement age, up to 36 months early, and by an additional 5/12 of 1 percent for each month earlier than that. So if you were born in 1956 and elect to start receiving Social Security this year at age 62, your full retirement benefit will be reduced 26.67 percent [that’s (36 x 5/9) + (16 x 5/12) = 26.67].

Can I draw my Social Security check while I’m still working? The short answer is yes. If you wait until full retirement age to draw Social Security, there’s no penalty for continuing to work. But if you elect to take Social Security before your full retirement age, your already-reduced Social Security benefit will be cut by another $1 for every $2 you earn above $17,040 in 2018. So taking Social Security before your full retirement age is usually not a good idea if you expect to continue working for more than that modest amount. Once you take early retirement, you can’t change your mind.

Is there a benefit for delaying receipt of Social Security even after attaining full retirement age? For people born in 1943 or later, each month you wait after full retirement age to start drawing Social Security will add 2/3 of 1 percent to your full-retirement Social Security benefit or (8 percent per year of delay). If you were born in 1952, you will attain full retirement age (66) in 2018. If you wait until age 70 to draw your first Social Security check, that check will be up to 32 percent higher.

Does it make more sense to take Social Security at full retirement age or delay the election to get a bigger check? It depends on your personal circumstances, and everyone has to make their own decision. Remember, the larger Social Security amount between spouses becomes the survivor benefit — something to consider if your other survivor benefit options are limited.

In my case, I elected to take Social Security at age 66 rather than waiting until 70 based on the following factors:

• I had been fortunate enough to pay off my mortgage, so our monthly expenses were reduced.
• My spouse had no retirement annuity from her own employment.
• My military retired pay alone was not sufficient to maintain our desired living standard.
• Adding the full-retirement Social Security checks for me and my spouse (of roughly the same age) would provide sufficient income.
• If we didn’t take Social Security, we would have had to withdraw a roughly equivalent amount from our retirement savings to meet monthly expenses.
• By taking Social Security at full retirement age, we could continue to let our 401(k)/IRA retirement savings grow tax-free.
• My own assessment was that taking full Social Security retirement benefits at age 66 versus age 70 would be roughly actuarially neutral (that is, provide roughly equal long-term financial benefit if my spouse and I had normal longevity).
• Taking Social Security at full retirement age would provide some level of income protection hedge (by not depleting retirement savings and not forfeiting interim Social Security payments) if one of us were to die relatively early.