This Is the Average Social Security Benefit for Age 65
These people are paying small price for beginning benefits before the program intended them to.
Most investors probably already know the average monthly Social Security payment currently stands at $1,976. But, that can be a somewhat-misleading number. Millions of beneficiaries are cashing checks of less than $1,000 per month, while just as many people are enjoying monthly payments of more than $3,000.
The number is also skewed by those who made the decision to initiate their retirement benefits before reaching their intended full retirement age -- or FRA -- of 66 or 67 (depending on when they were born), thus reducing the size of their payment. Conversely, the figure's lifted by workers that delayed beginning their retirement checks in order to make these payments bigger once begun.
To this end, the Social Security Administration reports the average monthly payment for today's 65-year-olds is a below-average $1,611, reduced because these recipients didn't wait until reaching their full retirement age to claim benefits.
