Forget about checking with social security to see if your earnings have been properly recorded and to keep tabs on how much you can expect in benefits. You no longer have to ask.

Starting in October, the agency will automatically mail annual updates to about 125 million workers age 25 and older. Your statement will show how much of your income was taxed each year for social security and medicare, and give you a clear picture of the retirement, disability and survivor benefits you're building up. About ten million statements will be mailed each month, timed to arrive three months before your birthday. (The cost of getting the word out? About $75 million a year.)

The new statements will also include a critical piece of information that most people don't know: how old you need to be to collect full retirement benefits. The old standby answer--65 years old--is no longer true for the vast majority of workers. The age for receiving full benefits is gradually increasing from 65 to 67. Anyone 61 or younger today, in fact, has to wait past 65--at least an extra two months, and maybe as long as two years, depending on the year you were born. Regardless of when you can claim full benefits, you can sign up for social security as early as age 62, but your benefits will be permanently reduced by up to 30%.

Although the rising retirement age affects 96% of today's workers, only 16% know it, according to a recent survey by the Employee Benefit Research Institute. "It's a shocking and potentially disastrous statistic," says EBRI president Dallas Salisbury, indicating that Americans may be less prepared for retirement than they think.