When Should I Claim Social Security? 62 vs 67 vs 70
Understand the trade-off between claiming Social Security early at 62, at full retirement age of 67, or at the maximum age of 70, and how to find your break-even age.
The Trade-Off Explained Simply
Social Security is designed so that, on average, claiming at any age between 62 and 70 produces roughly the same total lifetime benefit assuming average life expectancy. Claiming earlier gives you more checks over your lifetime, but each check is smaller. Claiming later gives you fewer but significantly larger checks.
Your full retirement age (FRA) depends on your birth year. For people born in 1960 or later, the FRA is 67. At FRA, you receive your full Primary Insurance Amount (PIA), which is based on your 35 highest earning years. Claiming before FRA permanently reduces your benefit. Claiming after FRA permanently increases it through delayed retirement credits.
The decision is essentially a bet on your longevity. If you live a long time, waiting to claim produces more total lifetime income. If you die early, claiming early produces more. Since nobody knows their exact lifespan, this is an inherently uncertain decision with legitimate arguments for different strategies.
Claiming at 62: The Cost of Early
Claiming at 62, the earliest possible age, permanently reduces your benefit by about 30% compared to your FRA benefit for those with an FRA of 67. If your FRA benefit would be $2,000 per month, claiming at 62 gives you approximately $1,400 per month instead.
You begin receiving benefits five years earlier than at FRA, which means many more checks. But each one is smaller by nearly a third. This makes sense if you have health concerns that limit your life expectancy, if you need the income immediately due to job loss or health issues, or if you have other financial reasons to begin income earlier.
Early claiming also affects survivor benefits for a spouse. If you die first, your spouse can claim survivor benefits based on your record. A permanently reduced benefit means permanently reduced survivor benefits as well, which is an important consideration for married couples.
Claiming at 70: Maximum Benefit
Delaying Social Security past FRA increases your benefit by 8% per year for each year you wait, up to age 70. For someone with an FRA of 67, claiming at 70 provides 124% of the base FRA benefit. On a $2,000 FRA benefit, that is $2,480 per month — a permanent 24% increase.
The 8% annual increase is a guaranteed, inflation-adjusted return that is very difficult to beat through alternative investments, particularly in a low-interest-rate environment. For people who are healthy, still working, and have other income sources to live on between FRA and 70, delaying to 70 often makes strong financial sense.
After 70, there is no additional benefit to waiting. The delayed retirement credits stop accumulating. If you have not yet claimed at 70, claim immediately — there is no financial reason to delay further.
How to Find Your Personal Break-Even Age
The break-even age is the age at which the higher monthly payment from delaying makes up for the checks you missed by waiting. To calculate it, divide the total benefits foregone from waiting by the monthly benefit increase you receive by waiting.
For example, delaying from 67 to 70 means forgoing 36 monthly payments at $2,000 each — $72,000 foregone. The monthly benefit increase is $480 ($2,480 minus $2,000). Divide $72,000 by $480 to find the break-even point of 150 months, or 12.5 years, past age 70. If you live past age 82.5, delaying to 70 produces more total lifetime income.
The Social Security Administration website at ssa.gov has tools that can show you your estimated benefits at different claiming ages. Your financial advisor can also model different claiming scenarios alongside your other retirement income sources to find the strategy that works best for your complete financial picture.