When should you turn Social Security on?
Claiming at 62 gives you a smaller check for longer. Waiting until 70 gives you a much larger one, for life. Where those two lines cross is the only number most people actually want.
| Claim at | Monthly | Annual | Lifetime total |
|---|
Cumulative benefits received
Where the lines cross is the breakeven age.
Breakeven is the wrong question for most married couples. The larger of two benefits continues for whichever spouse lives longer, so delaying the higher earner's benefit is really buying survivor income, not betting on your own longevity. Run the higher earner and the lower earner separately and the answers often differ.
The claiming decision is not a standalone decision.
When you claim changes your taxable income, which changes your Roth conversion room, which changes your Medicare premiums two years later. Those pieces move together, and the version of this decision that only looks at breakeven usually leaves money on the table.
Assumptions and limits. Full retirement age by birth year, the early claiming reduction of 5/9 of one percent per month for the first 36 months and 5/12 of one percent per month beyond 36, and delayed retirement credits of 8% per year to age 70 for those born in 1943 or later, all per the Social Security Administration. Figures are in today's dollars and exclude cost-of-living adjustments, which apply to every claiming age and so shift the breakeven only slightly. The comparison ignores federal and state income tax on benefits, the earnings test if you work before full retirement age, spousal and survivor benefits, the windfall elimination and government pension provisions, Medicare premium deductions, and any return you might earn by investing benefits taken earlier. Benefit estimates on your statement assume continued earnings and can change. This tool is general education, not advice. Confirm with the Social Security Administration before claiming.