One of the major concerns for middle-aged folks is when to retire and start receiving social security payments. The Social Security Administration (SSA) gives you the following guidelines:

a.   Retire at age 62. SSA payments are reduced by 25 percent, and you can only earn less than $14,000/year before further reduction of your payments.

b.   Retire at 66 (full retirement age). You can also continue to work and earn as much as you want with no penalties. Typical yearly SSA payments for engineers are $20,000 to $30,000/year.

c.   Retire at 70, and SSA payments will increase by 25 percent.