A new Fidelity Investments survey says 45 percent of 61-year-old Americans plan to collect Social Security benefits as soon as they’re eligible, at age 62.

While this may be a fresh survey, it’s not an entirely new finding. For some time now, about half of all Social Security recipients have started taking benefits at 62. The trade-off, of course, is that they’ll get a smaller check each month for the rest of their lives than if they’d waited.

Many people have no choice, of course, especially in an economic downturn like the one we’re currently experiencing. However, if you have the means and patience to wait, you may fare better financially.

This article from Consumer Reports can help you decide what would make sense for you.  This new calculator on the Social Security Web site will allow you to run different retirement-age scenarios and see how your monthly benefits would be affected.—Greg Daugherty

Greg writes the “Retirement Guy” column each month in the Consumer Reports Money Adviser newsletter.