Are you thinking about retiring this year? If you are, you'll need to figure out whether you want to claim your Social Security benefits and how much those benefits will actually be worth.

Social Security is designed to replace around 40% of your pre-retirement income, leaving you to make up the rest with independent savings and any other sources of funds such as an employee pension.

You don't want to retire before you have enough money to live on, so make sure you go through the following steps to determine what your Social Security benefits will be if you retire this year.

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Visit the Social Security website to find your projected benefits

Your monthly retirement benefit is based on a formula that takes into account the income you earned in your 35 highest-earning years, adjusted for inflation. This means the benefit you'll receive is directly influenced by how much you earned throughout your career. That said, there are minimum benefit amounts to ensure that qualifying retirees receive a reasonable amount of income, and there are also maximum benefits for recipients who earned at least the highest possible taxable income for the full 35 years.

You can find out what your benefits will be if you retire in 2018 by visiting the Social Security website and logging into your personalized account -- or by creating an account if you don't already have one. The Social Security website will show you what your benefit amount will be if you claim retirement benefits at three different ages: your full retirement age (FRA), age 62, and age 70. Why, you ask? Because you can file for retirement benefits as early as age 62, but for every month you delay those benefits, up until age 70, your monthly check will receive a permanent increase.

In 2018, you'd need to have been born in 1952 or earlier to have reached your full retirement age, because for those born between 1943 and 1954, FRA is 66.

If you'll be claiming your benefits in 2018 when you're exactly 62, exactly 66, or 70-plus, the Social Security Administration's website tells you everything you need to know.

Determine how age will affect your benefits

If you aren't exactly 62, 66, or 70, you'll need to do some math to determine how much you'll receive in Social Security benefits if you claim your benefits in 2018.

If you retire before your full retirement age, your benefits will be reduced by five-ninths of 1% for each month before your FRA, up to 36 months early. Beyond 36 months early, your benefit will be reduced by an additional five-twelfths of 1% per month.