<prompt> Human: Hi everyone. Forgive me because this is going to potentially sound naïvesnarky and I dont feel that I can ask my father in law since its a personal situation, but I do have a burning desire to know how this works. Also, I dont know if this is the right place for this, I apologize if it isnt and Ill go elsewhere. Anyway, my father in law stopped workingquit his job at age 55, he used to be a teacher. My mother in law still works. Health insurance, I guess, they arent worrying about and are uninsured and just paying the penalty. FIL says hes waiting until age 67 to retire so he can claim the most retirement benefits, and is figuratively rubbing his hands together and laughing about how easy he has it- claiming he can reap the max benefits at 67.By stopping work at 55 has he, in some way, reduced the amount of benefit hell receive in retirement, or how is that figured? He says hes going to get a pension from the state, but in general, how would this work for people even without a state job? It just doesnt seem right that someone can quit a job and in 11 years officially retire with an amount of social security benefits equal to someone who worked right up until they were 67, or is that completely spot on? I believe I read that your retirement benefit is averaged over the last 3 years of your salary before you stopped working, then again, maybe I dreamed it. The inlaws dont seem to have a lot of financial common sense, Im sorry to say - he had an IRA at one point but dipped into it to pay for a bunch of frivolous shit and has nothing left, so Im just wondering if this is another financial pipe dream hes sorely misinterpreted and is going to completely fck himself over, or if hes got it right. Id really appreciate your insight! P.S. Hes waiting until 67 to draw pension, medicare, and social security.  <response>: Most pensions are set up so that you get X of your salary when you retire at age Y. When I worked for the State of California, I was on the 2-at-62 plan, which means if I waited until age 62, I would get 2 of my salary for each year that I had worked. If I retired started the pension earlier than 62, I would get a smaller percentage.The salary you get is usually calculated as you say, by averaging the last three years. So lets see my final 3 years salary were 58,000, then 60,000, then 62,000. The average is 60k.So if I started my job at age 42, and retired at 62, I would have 20 years of service. Times 2 40 of my salary. 40 of 60k is 24k, so I would get 24k per year until I died.If I started my job at age 40, and wanted to retire at 60, I still had 20 years of service. But because I retired two years earlier, I wouldnt get 2 per year, I might only get 1.8 per year. So instead of 40 of my final salary, I would only get 36. 