Social Security - Early Receipt Choice

You will take a permanent monthly reduction in benefits if you begin collecting Social Security before full retirement (ages 62-67 depending on your date of birth).
You can go to the SSA website and read the "Retirement Information For Medicare Beneficiaries" fact sheet, or use the SSA Retirement Estimator to see how different retirement dates will affect your benefit amount and also find other information you can use to help you decide when to start your benefits in the "Near Retirement" section of the Retirement Planner.
The SSA website is http://www.ssa.gov