The Steward's Desk · Social Security
The rules let you claim anywhere from 62 to 70, and the right age is personal. Here's how to think the decision through calmly.
Jesse Plunkett, CEPA®, CRPC®
July 12, 2026 · Meet your advisor · 
Social Security pays a smaller check if you claim before your full retirement age and a larger one for each month you wait, up to age 70. Those adjustments are written into the program's rules. They don't depend on the market, and they last for life, with inflation adjustments applied on top.
Full retirement age is 67 for anyone born in 1960 or later. Claim at 62 and your check is permanently reduced; wait past full retirement age and it grows every month until 70, through what the Social Security Administration calls delayed retirement credits. The size of that swing surprises people. Under the SSA's benefit formula, someone with a full retirement age of 67 collects 70% of their full benefit by claiming at 62, and 124% by waiting until 70. Run those two against each other and the monthly check is roughly 77% larger at 70 than at 62, before any cost-of-living adjustments. That increase is set by law rather than by anything you have to predict.
Here's the decision in one view. No row is the right answer by itself; the last column is where your actual life comes in.
| Claiming window | What happens to your monthly check | Often the better fit when... |
|---|---|---|
| Early (62 up to full retirement age) | Permanently reduced. The earlier you file, the larger the reduction. | Health or family history argues against waiting, you need the income now, or you're the lower earner in a couple's coordinated plan. |
| Full retirement age (67 if born in 1960 or later) | Your full, unreduced benefit. | You want income to start as work ends, without drawing your savings down further while you wait. |
| Delayed (up to age 70) | Grows each month past full retirement age. The growth stops at 70, so there's no reason to wait beyond that. | You're healthy, you have other accounts to spend from, or you're the higher earner in a marriage. |
Waiting tends to fit when you're in good health, have longevity in your family, and can cover spending from other sources in the meantime. It also tends to fit the higher earner in a marriage, because the larger check is the one that continues for the surviving spouse.
Waiting doesn't mean going without income; it usually means the paycheck comes from your portfolio for a few years while the benefit grows. Those bridge years often land in the same low-tax window that makes Roth conversions attractive, which is why I treat the claiming decision as part of the withdrawal plan rather than a separate choice. And because benefits carry annual cost-of-living adjustments, the larger base you secure by waiting is the amount every future adjustment builds on.
Earlier claiming is often right when your health or family history argues against waiting, when you need the income and the alternative is uncomfortable debt or withdrawals you can't sustain, or when you're the lower-earning spouse and your household plan calls for one benefit to start early while the other grows.
There's no prize for waiting when waiting doesn't fit. If your health history argues for enjoying the money sooner, claiming early can be the sound choice, made with clear eyes. Couples have more moving pieces: it's common for the lower earner to claim early to bring income in while the higher earner waits, since the higher earner's check is also the one that continues for whichever spouse lives longer. And if you've already claimed, nothing here is a verdict on the past. The plan works from where you are.
Claiming before full retirement age while working can trigger the earnings test: once your wages pass an annual limit, Social Security temporarily withholds part of your benefit. Withheld money isn't lost. Your benefit is recalculated upward at full retirement age to credit those months, and the test ends entirely at that point.
The dollar limit changes every year, so I won't print a figure that will be stale by spring; the Social Security Administration publishes the current one. The practical takeaway is calmer than the rule sounds: if you plan to keep working before full retirement age, claiming early often means handing part of the benefit back for a while, which weakens the case for starting it. Once you reach full retirement age, you can earn any amount without affecting your check.
For married couples, the higher earner's claiming age is often the most consequential number in the whole plan, because of how survivor benefits are built. When one spouse dies, the survivor keeps the larger of the two benefits, not both. So the check the higher earner locks in does double duty: it is that person's income while both are living, and it becomes the survivor's income for the rest of their life. Delaying the higher earner's benefit toward 70 raises the floor under whichever spouse lives longer, at exactly the point that person may face a single tax filing status and the loss of the smaller check. The lower earner can often claim earlier to bring income in without much cost to that survivor math. Coordinating the two dates is a large part of why couples treat this as one decision, not two.
Break-even math is where most people start: at what age does the larger delayed check finally add up to more than the smaller early one you passed on? It is a fair calculation, and it is also an incomplete lens. Treating the decision as a wager you win by living a long time gets the risk backward. For most retirees, the outcome that truly stings is not dying early after waiting; it is living to 92 with income that has not kept up. The averages are longer than most people assume: the Social Security Administration's 2025 period life table puts remaining life expectancy at age 65 at about 18.5 years for men and 21.0 years for women, which carries the average man to 83 and the average woman to 86. And an average is the middle, not the ceiling, so roughly half of today's 65-year-olds will live past those ages. Seen that way, a larger Social Security benefit is less a bet than a form of insurance: the one paycheck that lasts as long as you do and rises with inflation every year. Delaying buys more of that insurance, which is why your health and family longevity weigh more heavily on this choice than the exact break-even age.
Run your own numbers instead of borrowing a rule of thumb. Compare what each claiming age pays across the years you actually expect to plan for, next to your health, your spouse's benefit, your withdrawal plan, and taxes. The Social Security Timing calculator on this site is a simple place to start.
Taxes belong in the comparison too. Up to 85 percent of your Social Security benefit can be federally taxable depending on your other income, so your claiming age and your withdrawal order are one decision wearing two hats. Try the Social Security Timing calculator to see the gap between claiming ages using your own numbers, then bring what you find to a conversation. This decision rewards an unhurried afternoon with your actual figures, and it deserves one.
That's a normal first project to do together. A short call is the place to start.
The right age depends on your health, other income, and whether you're still working, not a single default. Waiting longer, up to age 70, substantially raises your monthly benefit, and that increase is built into the rules themselves rather than depending on the market. We work through your specific numbers before you file.
Yes, often. Health concerns, a family history that argues against waiting, needing the income now, or coordinating with a higher-earning spouse who waits are all sound reasons to claim before full retirement age. Early claiming is a trade-off, not a mistake. The goal is a decision that fits your life, made on purpose.
Within the first 12 months, yes. The Social Security Administration lets you withdraw your application once, repay what you've received, and file again later as if you hadn't claimed. Separately, once you reach full retirement age, you can suspend your benefit and earn delayed retirement credits until age 70.
Often, yes, partially. Depending on your combined income, which counts half your Social Security plus your other income, up to 85 percent of your benefit can be federally taxable. Those thresholds were set in statute in 1983 and 1993 and are not indexed for inflation (Social Security Administration, Income Taxes on Social Security Benefits), so more retirees are affected over time. We factor this into your withdrawal order and any Roth conversion planning.