Updated July 31, 2026. Quick answer: your financial life has about ten statutory birthdays — and most people know them only as round numbers, which is how mistakes happen: 59½ is an exact date, the rule of 55 runs on a calendar YEAR, the Medicare window opens three months before 65 (a month earlier if you were born on the 1st), and your RMD age depends on your birth year under a statute Congress mis-drafted for people born in 1959. Enter your birthdate and get your actual dates:
The calculator
The three dates people get wrong
The rule of 55 is a year, not a birthday — separate from your employer any time in the calendar year you turn 55 and the 401(k) exception can apply; and the universal “roll it to an IRA” advice permanently destroys it. The Medicare window forgives nothing — miss the 7-month Initial Enrollment window without qualifying coverage and the Part B penalty is lifelong. And 1959 is a special case — SECURE 2.0’s text accidentally assigned that birth year BOTH RMD ages; the 2024 proposed regulations resolved it to 73, and the RMD basics guide covers what starting actually looks like.
The decisions behind the dates: when to actually claim Social Security · which account to draw first · giving from an IRA after 70½. The full chart in one glance: every retirement age, 50 to 75.
The dates are automatic. The decisions at each one are not.
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