When Should I Claim Social Security? 62 vs 67 vs 70

You can start Social Security retirement benefits as early as 62 or as late as 70. Claiming early gets you more payments but a permanently smaller monthly check. Waiting gets you fewer, larger checks.

How much the claiming age changes your benefit

For anyone born in 1960 or later, full retirement age is 67. Take a hypothetical benefit of $2,000 a month at that age:

Claim at	Share of full benefit	Monthly benefit
62	70%	$1,400
67	100%	$2,000
70	124%	$2,480

The early reduction is 5/9 of 1% for each of the first 36 months before full retirement age, and 5/12 of 1% for each month beyond. Each year of delay after full retirement age adds 8%, up to age 70.

The break-even age

Claiming at 62 starts eight years earlier than claiming at 70, so the early claimer is ahead at first. The larger checks from waiting catch up at the break-even age:

Comparison	Break-even age
62 vs 67	about 78 and 8 months
62 vs 70	about 80 and 4 months

Lifetime totals in today's dollars, for someone who lives to 87:

Claim at	Total received by 87
62	about $421,000
67	about $482,000
70	about $508,000

If they live to 92, the gap between claiming at 62 and 70 widens to about $152,000.

Compare your own ages with the Social Security calculator.

How to decide

• Health and family history. If you expect to live well past the break-even age, waiting usually pays more in total. Planning for a long life protects you against the costlier risk of running out of money late in life.
• Marriage. A surviving spouse generally keeps the larger of the two benefits. A higher earner who delays can raise a survivor's income for decades.
• Other income. Claiming early can make sense if you have no other savings and need the income now. If you can live on savings for a few years, delaying buys a larger, inflation-adjusted income for life.
• Working before full retirement age. Benefits may be temporarily withheld if your earnings exceed a limit.

Get your actual benefit estimate from your Social Security statement at ssa.gov.

Source: SSA: Benefit reduction for early retirement.