Allison Walker, Generation to Generation

Should you take your benefits now, or wait?

It is easier now than at this time last year to analyze your options, because the Social Security Administration has launched an online retirement estimator to help you answer that question.

The online retirement estimator lets workers instantly view their expected levels of Social Security payments for all possible retirement ages.

According to the AARP, about half of today's workers take their benefits at age 62, but financial experts are increasingly advising people to hold off longer.

If you can afford to wait to take Social Security, and you expect to live several more years, they said the raised payments may be worthwhile.

Every year you delay between ages 62 and 65, your benefits increase about 5 or 6 percent.

After age 66, your benefit increases 8 percent every year. That can make a big difference.

By letting the estimator crunch some numbers, you may find out that retiring, for example, at 70 versus 62, could get you more than $1,000 extra each month.

An estimated nearly 80 million baby boomers are making the decision on when to start drawing on the Social Security system.

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