My husband was just forced to take early social security (forced due to our financial circumstances), at age 63. If you file at age 66 (I don’t think it is 65 any more, but I could be mistaken), you can earn as much as you want without losing benefits.
If however, you take EARLY ss, that is a whole other ball of wax. You cannot earn more than (I believe) $14,650 for each calendar year. If you do, they will deduct $1 for every $2 that you earn above that allowed amount, as was explained to us. So if you earn 10K above $14,650, they will hold back checks equalling 5K, until the next January. This can result in you actually not receiving a number of ss checks, until the amount that they are deducting has been met. Unless you are earning a REALLY large amount of money, it is not probably not worth it, and you should wait until regular retirement to collect, because you can earn whatever you want then, with no restriction. You also earn less with early social than if you waited. OTOH, you could collect for several years before age 66, so it’s up to you. If we didn’t have to do it, my husband would not have applied so early, most likely.