What Baby Boomers Need to Know About Their Retirement Income. When your parents retired, they probably didn't think too much about Social Security. They just went down to their local office as soon as they turned 65, or maybe 62 if they retired early, and applied for benefits. They took their benefits for granted and didn't ask very many questions. But baby boomers approach the Social Security question in a different way and it’s creating a problem for many.