Social Security FRA in January 2026 - when exactly can my husband stop working?

This is a common point of confusion! For Social Security purposes, your husband reaches his Full Retirement Age in January 2026 (the whole month). He does NOT need to work into January at all. He can stop working December 31st (or even earlier) and still claim full retirement benefits starting January 2026. The date of the month doesn't matter - Social Security pays benefits for full months. His birth date only matters for determining his FRA month, not for determining when he can stop working.

My FRA was last year and I was worried about the same thing! I called SSA like 3 times and got different answers lol. But it worked out fine when I stopped Dec 15th and got my first payment in January. Their system is so confusing!!

I think you're confusing two different things here. FRA is just when you're eligible for 100% of your benefit rather than a reduced amount. It has NOTHING to do with when you stop working. You can stop working years before your FRA if you want to (though you'd get reduced benefits if you claim early). Or you can work well past your FRA (and get delayed retirement credits until age 70). The ONLY thing that matters for your husband is WHEN HE CLAIMS benefits, not when he stops working. Those are completely separate decisions.

Just to add some clarity here: Your husband's Full Retirement Age is when he's eligible for 100% of his Primary Insurance Amount (PIA). He can stop working anytime before claiming - there's no requirement to work until FRA. However, there are a few things to consider: 1) If he claims benefits before FRA while still working, he'll be subject to the earnings test (which can reduce benefits) 2) His benefit amount is based on his highest 35 years of earnings, so working longer sometimes increases benefits 3) He should apply for retirement benefits 2-3 months before he wants them to begin If he wants benefits to start in January 2026, he should apply around October-November 2025, and can stop working anytime before then.

OMG I had this EXACT question last year!!! Spent HOURS on hold with SS trying to get someone to explain it!! Nobody explains this clearly and the website is useless! From what I eventually figured out, FRA is just about WHEN YOU FILE, not when you stop working. My husband retired 6 months before his FRA but waited to FILE until his FRA month. Just be careful about WHEN you submit the application!!

One thing to keep in mind is that your husband should file his application 3 months before he wants his benefits to begin. So if he wants his first payment to arrive in February 2026 (which would be for January 2026), he should file around October 2025. If you're having trouble reaching someone at Social Security, I recently used this service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that gets you through to an agent without the endless hold times. They have a video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/Z-BRbJw3puU. Saved me hours of frustration when I was trying to sort out my wife's benefits.

My husband thought the same thing! Turns out he could have stopped working 2 years before FRA if he wanted to! The bigger question is when you want to START getting benefits, not when you stop working.

To summarize for you and make sure everything's clear: 1) Your husband can stop working anytime - tomorrow, next year, or 5 years from now. His stop-work date has no direct connection to his FRA. 2) He reaches FRA in January 2026, meaning he can file for 100% of his benefit at that time. 3) If he wants benefits to begin in January 2026, he should apply around October 2025. 4) If he works in 2026 after starting benefits, there's no earnings limit since he'll be at FRA. Is this timeline making sense now?

I went through this exact same confusion with my own retirement planning! One additional tip that might help: if your husband has been a high earner in recent years, it's worth checking if working those final months in 2025 would actually increase his Social Security benefit amount. The SSA calculates benefits based on your highest 35 years of indexed earnings, so sometimes those last few months of work can bump up your average if you're earning more now than in earlier years. You can create an account on ssa.gov to see his earnings record and estimated benefits. But as everyone else has said, he's absolutely free to stop working December 31st, 2025 (or earlier) and still get full benefits starting January 2026!

Just wanted to add my experience to help clarify things! My husband was in a very similar situation - his FRA was January 2024 and we were so confused about the timing. After reading through all the SSA materials and talking to a representative, here's what we learned: he could stop working anytime before his FRA month without affecting his benefit amount. He ended up retiring on December 15th, 2023, and we applied for his benefits in October 2023. His first payment came in February 2024 (for January 2024) at 100% of his full benefit amount. The key thing is that Social Security pays benefits for full months, so as long as he reaches FRA in January 2026, he'll get the full month's benefit regardless of when in December he stops working. Hope this helps ease your planning stress!

As someone who just went through this process myself, I wanted to add one more perspective that might be helpful. My wife's FRA was also January (2025), and we discovered that the Social Security Administration actually recommends applying about 3 months BEFORE you want your benefits to start to avoid any processing delays. So for January 2026 benefits, definitely submit that application by October 2025 at the latest. Also, don't forget that once your husband reaches his FRA and starts collecting benefits, he can actually continue working if he wants to without any earnings penalty - unlike if you claim early. This gives you even more flexibility in your retirement planning. The earnings test disappears once you hit FRA, so if he wants to do some part-time work or consulting after "retirement," it won't affect his Social Security payments at all. The bottom line everyone's been telling you is absolutely correct: he can stop working December 31st, 2025 (or any day before that) and still receive 100% of his benefit starting January 2026. The timing of when you stop working and when you claim benefits are two completely separate decisions!