Deciding when to take your Social Security benefit is an important part of protecting your retirement accounts and your long-term financial security. Taking the benefit too early—before you’ve earned your full benefit—could hurt your accounts as you’re forced to withdraw from your IRA, 401(k), or other retirement assets to meet expenses. Withdrawing later might give you a higher Social Security benefit, but waiting might put pressure on your nest egg to cover current expenses.

You can draw reduced Social Security income benefits starting at age 62. If you were born before 1937, your full Social Security benefit was available when you turned 65. If you were born between 1938 and 1942, your full benefit is available at age 65 and some months. Folks born between 1943 and 1954 can take their full benefit at age 66. Right now, the age when you qualify for full benefits increases by a few months for each birth year until it reaches age 67 for everyone born in 1960 or afterward. If you work past your full retirement, your benefit will increase a little—partly because you’re older and the benefit is calculated based on your shorter life expectancy but also because you’re continuing to pay Social Security taxes that add credits to your account.

Every year, three months before your birthday, your Social Security benefit estimate statement should arrive in the mail. An estimate of your future benefit and the amount of Social Security taxes that have been credited to your account each year are included on the statement. Beware if you worked a job that wasn’t covered by Social Security, because the pension from that job might reduce your Social Security benefit. Check out the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) or Government Pension Offset (GPO) calculators at www.SSA.gov to see how much.

If you decide to take your benefit before reaching full retirement age, there are limits to how much work income you can earn without a penalty. Currently there is a dollar “give back” for every $2 you earn over the earnings limit. If you’re not working, drawing early can be an advantage even if it reduces your future monthly benefit because it reduces your need to withdraw money from other accounts to cover expenses. Use the break-even age calculator on the Social Security website to estimate the age you need to live to in order to benefit from waiting to draw on Social Security. If you think you’ll live past the break-even age, it is probably better to wait until full retirement age to take your benefit.

If you’re married, it’s important to consider the effect on your survivor benefit of taking your Social Security benefit before your full retirement age. Widowed spouses receive their own Social Security benefit plus a part of their late spouse’s benefit. If the higher earner is also the person with the shorter life expectancy—which is often the case of a husband with a wife a few years younger than him—delaying the higher earner’s benefit will make the widow’s benefit of the lower earner higher.

Check out www.socialsecurity.gov/estimator to calculate an estimate of your benefit. It takes roughly three months to process a Social Security income claim. You should contact the Social Security Administration either online at www.SSA.gov or in person at your local office three months before you want your benefit to start. The folks at the Social Security office can be a great resource if you have questions about your retirement benefit or how any of the other benefits like widow’s or disability benefit work.

If you’re single, one of the bigger retirement concerns is making sure you don’t outlive your money. Avoiding paying too much in taxes is a big part of preserving your money for as long as you need it. If you’re not working, run the break-even calculator to estimate your break-even age—and decide from there when to start your benefit. If you’re working, delay taking your benefit until full retirement age to avoid having your earned income counted against the benefit you receive. Once you reach full retirement age, it is usually better to start drawing your benefit unless your earned income is still more than you need to live on.

Right now, only up to 85 percent of your Social Security benefit is taxable as income. You should take the benefit if it reduces the amount of income you need from other 100 percent taxable sources you need, like retirement plan withdrawals. Don’t take the benefit if it will only increase the taxes due on the income you already have coming in—such as from work—by bringing you up into the next-higher tax bracket. If you don’t need it for living expenses, invest it and grow your nest egg.

For married couples, in addition to the tax considerations just described, the decision of when to take your benefit is complicated by making sure you keep the biggest survivor benefit. If you’re married and are widowed, you can get a Social Security benefit that is about 50 percent of your spouse’s benefit or the benefit you earned on your own account, whichever is higher. When your spouse dies, you can continue to receive your own benefit or a combined benefit that brings you up to the benefits the higher-earning spouse was getting. If you both worked and earned similar benefits, this won’t affect you because you both are receiving your full benefit, on your own, regardless of the other spouse’s earning history.

Complications arise if one of you didn’t work or earned sufficiently less than the other. In many cases, this is the familiar scenario of the mom who stays home with the kids and the husband who spends more years in the workforce. For this stereotypical husband-and-wife team, it may be better for the husband to delay taking his benefit until full retirement age (or even age 70) in order to maximize the wife’s survivor benefit.