Social Security: Claim at 62, 67, or 70?
Published by Getting Old Is for the Birds™ | 🕒 Estimated Read Time: 11 minutes
A Simple Guide to Making One of Retirement's Biggest Decisions
One of the biggest financial decisions you'll make in retirement is when to start collecting Social Security benefits.
You can generally begin retirement benefits as early as age 62. But claiming early permanently reduces your monthly retirement benefit. Waiting until your Full Retirement Age gives you your full calculated benefit, while delaying beyond Full Retirement Age can increase your retirement benefit until age 70.
So which age is best?
62? 67? 70?
There isn't one answer that works for everyone.
Your decision may depend on:
- Your health and expected longevity
- Whether you're still working
- How much you've saved for retirement
- Whether you're married
- Your spouse's Social Security benefit
- Your need for income now
- Taxes
- Medicare considerations
- How important a larger survivor benefit may be to your household
Let's break it down in plain English.
🦉 Start Here: Check Your Own Social Security Numbers
Before comparing ages, find out what your actual benefit could be.
Create or sign in to your free my Social Security account. You can review your earnings record and see personalized retirement-benefit estimates at different claiming ages.
🦉 Wise Tip
Don't base this decision on the average Social Security benefit or what a friend receives. Your benefit is based on your own earnings record, so your personalized SSA estimate is far more useful.
Official Social Security Website
Use the Social Security Administration's official website:
Social Security Administration
🦉 Quick Take
There isn't one universally “best” age to claim Social Security.
Claiming at 62 gives you income sooner but results in a permanently reduced monthly retirement benefit.
Claiming at Full Retirement Age gives you 100% of your calculated Full Retirement Age benefit.
Waiting until 70 produces your highest monthly retirement benefit based on your earnings record because of delayed retirement credits. There is no additional increase from delaying retirement benefits beyond age 70.
Quick Comparison
| When You Claim | Monthly Retirement Benefit | May Be Worth Considering If... |
|---|---|---|
| Age 62 | Permanently reduced | You need income sooner or have other reasons not to delay |
| Full Retirement Age | 100% of your FRA benefit | You want your full benefit without waiting until 70 |
| Age 70 | Highest monthly retirement benefit | You can afford to wait and want to maximize monthly income |
Important: Age 67 is not everyone's Full Retirement Age.
Understanding Full Retirement Age
Your Full Retirement Age (FRA) depends on the year you were born.
For people born in 1960 or later, FRA is 67. People born earlier may have a Full Retirement Age between 66 and 67.
This matters because your Full Retirement Age is the benchmark Social Security uses when determining whether your retirement benefit is being claimed early or delayed.
Claim before FRA, and your monthly retirement benefit is generally reduced.
Claim at FRA, and you receive 100% of your calculated FRA retirement benefit.
Delay beyond FRA, and delayed retirement credits can increase your monthly retirement benefit until age 70.
🦉 Wise Tip
Before comparing 62, 67 and 70, find your actual Full Retirement Age. Don't automatically assume it's 67.
What Happens If You Claim Social Security at 62?
Age 62 is generally the earliest age at which you can begin receiving Social Security retirement benefits.
The advantage is obvious:
You start receiving money sooner.
The tradeoff is equally important:
Your monthly retirement benefit will be permanently reduced.
For someone whose Full Retirement Age is 67, starting at 62 can reduce the retirement benefit by as much as 30% compared with waiting until FRA.
Advantages of Claiming at 62
- You begin receiving income sooner.
- It may help if you've stopped working early.
- It may reduce the amount you need to withdraw from savings initially.
- It can provide income if waiting isn't practical for your circumstances.
Things to Consider
- Your monthly retirement benefit is permanently reduced.
- Working while collecting benefits before FRA may cause some benefits to be withheld if your earnings exceed the annual limit.
- For married couples, the higher earner's claiming decision can affect future survivor income.
Claiming at 62 May Be Worth Considering If...
- You need retirement income now.
- You've stopped working and don't want to rely heavily on savings.
- You have personal reasons for preferring income sooner.
- Your financial plan indicates that claiming earlier makes sense.
🦉 Wise Tip
Don't choose 62 simply because you're eligible. But don't assume waiting is automatically better, either. Run the numbers for your situation.
What Happens If You Claim at Full Retirement Age?
At your Full Retirement Age, you qualify for 100% of your calculated FRA retirement benefit.
For anyone born in 1960 or later, that age is 67.
Another important change occurs at FRA:
The Social Security retirement earnings test no longer reduces your benefits because of how much you earn from working.
Advantages of Claiming at FRA
- You receive 100% of your FRA retirement benefit.
- The retirement earnings test no longer applies once you reach FRA.
- You don't need to wait until 70 to begin receiving benefits.
- It can provide a middle ground between claiming early and maximizing the monthly benefit.
Claiming at FRA May Be Worth Considering If...
- You can comfortably wait beyond age 62.
- You want your full FRA benefit.
- You don't want to wait until 70.
- Your retirement plan supports beginning benefits at that point.
What Happens If You Wait Until 70?
If you delay retirement benefits beyond your Full Retirement Age, Social Security adds delayed retirement credits.
For someone born in 1960 or later whose FRA is 67, claiming at 70 produces a monthly retirement benefit equal to about 124% of the FRA amount.
Once you reach 70, however, the benefit doesn't continue increasing simply because you wait longer to claim.
Advantages of Waiting Until 70
- You receive your highest monthly retirement benefit based on your earnings record.
- The larger monthly amount continues for life.
- Future COLAs are applied to a larger starting benefit.
- For a higher-earning spouse, delayed retirement credits can also increase the benefit used to determine a future surviving spouse's benefit.
- A larger guaranteed monthly benefit can help protect against longevity risk.
Things to Consider
- You'll need another source of income while you wait.
- You'll give up several years of Social Security payments.
- Waiting until 70 does not necessarily mean you'll receive the greatest total number of dollars over your lifetime.
- Your health, longevity, investments, taxes and household circumstances all matter.
Waiting Until 70 May Be Worth Considering If...
- You can comfortably cover expenses without Social Security.
- You want to maximize your monthly benefit.
- Longevity protection is a priority.
- You're the higher earner in a married couple and survivor income is an important consideration.
🦉 A Simple $2,000 Example
Sometimes percentages make Social Security harder to understand than it needs to be.
Suppose someone was born in 1960 or later and has a calculated benefit of:
$2,000 per month at Full Retirement Age 67.
Their approximate starting retirement benefits would look like this:
| Claiming Age | Approximate Monthly Benefit |
|---|---|
| 62 | $1,400 |
| 67 | $2,000 |
| 70 | $2,480 |
That's because claiming at 62 with an FRA of 67 can mean a 30% reduction, while waiting from 67 until 70 results in approximately 124% of the FRA benefit.
That's an $1,080 monthly difference between beginning at 62 and beginning at 70 in this example.
But remember:
The person who starts at 62 also receives checks for eight years before the person waiting until 70 receives the first one.
That's why the decision isn't as simple as asking:
“Which age gives me the biggest check?”
🦉 Wise Tip
Use your own Social Security estimates for this comparison. A hypothetical example helps explain the concept, but your earnings record determines your actual benefit.
What About the Break-Even Age?
You've probably heard people calculate a “break-even age”—the age at which waiting to claim produces more cumulative Social Security benefits than claiming earlier.
It can be useful information, but don't make your entire decision based on one break-even number.
Why?
Because Social Security isn't simply an investment account.
You're also making decisions about:
- Guaranteed monthly income
- Longevity risk
- Survivor income
- Investment withdrawals
- Taxes
- Inflation-adjusted benefits
- Household cash flow
Someone who lives a long life may value a larger monthly benefit very differently from someone whose circumstances favor receiving income sooner.
What If You're Still Working?
Yes, you can work and receive Social Security retirement benefits at the same time.
But if you're younger than Full Retirement Age, some benefits may be withheld when earnings exceed Social Security's annual earnings limit.
For 2026, the annual earnings limit is $24,480 if you're under FRA for the entire year. Social Security generally withholds $1 in benefits for every $2 earned above that amount.
During the year you reach FRA, a higher limit and different formula apply. Beginning with the month you reach FRA, the earnings limit no longer applies.
Importantly, benefits withheld under the earnings test aren't necessarily simply “lost.” At FRA, SSA recalculates your benefit to account for months in which benefits were withheld because of earnings.
🦉 Wise Tip
The earnings limits change over time. If you're working and considering Social Security before FRA, check the current year's limits directly with SSA before making your decision.
What About Married Couples?
This is where Social Security planning can become much more important.
For married couples, claiming decisions should often be viewed as a household decision, not simply two separate individual decisions.
A spouse may qualify for a benefit based on the other spouse's record. At the spouse's Full Retirement Age, the maximum spousal benefit can be up to 50% of the worker's FRA benefit, although claiming the spousal benefit early can reduce it. Delayed retirement credits earned by the worker do not increase the maximum regular spousal benefit while both spouses are living.
But survivor benefits are different.
Delayed retirement credits earned by the higher earner can affect the benefit available to a surviving spouse.
Couples should consider:
- Each person's own retirement benefit
- The difference between their benefits
- Their ages
- Health and longevity
- Other retirement income
- Potential spousal benefits
- Potential survivor benefits
🦉 Wise Tip
Be careful with older articles describing strategies such as claiming only a spousal benefit while allowing your own retirement benefit to grow. Social Security's deemed filing rules eliminated that option for most people eligible today, although survivor benefits have different rules.
Survivor Benefits Deserve Special Attention
For couples, the question isn't only:
“How much will we receive while we're both alive?”
It's also:
“What happens financially after one of us dies?”
A surviving spouse may qualify for a survivor benefit based on the deceased spouse's record. Depending on the survivor's claiming age and circumstances, survivor benefits can range from 71.5% up to 100% of the deceased spouse's benefit.
That makes the higher earner's claiming decision especially important for some couples.
Don't Forget About Taxes
Social Security benefits can be subject to federal income tax.
A simplified way to determine whether benefits may be taxable begins by adding:
One-half of your Social Security benefits
plus
your other income, including tax-exempt interest.
Your filing status and total income determine how much, if any, of your Social Security is taxable.
Depending on your income, up to 85% of your Social Security benefits may be included in taxable income.
That does not mean Social Security is taxed at an 85% tax rate.
It means up to 85% of the benefit may become part of the income on which your federal tax is calculated.
🦉 Wise Tip
Look at Social Security together with IRA and 401(k) withdrawals, pensions, investment income and other sources of retirement income. Taxes can change the picture.
Don't Forget Medicare
Social Security and Medicare are separate programs, and delaying Social Security does not necessarily mean you should delay Medicare.
SSA specifically cautions people delaying Social Security beyond age 65 to consider Medicare enrollment because delaying certain Medicare coverage can result in higher costs in some circumstances.
There is another issue to understand:
Medicare IRMAA
Higher-income Medicare beneficiaries may pay an Income-Related Monthly Adjustment Amount (IRMAA) in addition to their standard Medicare premiums.
For 2026, Medicare generally uses income reported on your 2024 federal tax return to determine whether IRMAA applies.
Large IRA withdrawals, Roth conversions, investment gains and other income can potentially affect the income used to determine future Medicare premiums.
🦉 Wise Tip
Don't look at Social Security, taxes and Medicare as three completely separate decisions. A good retirement-income strategy considers how they interact.
Questions to Ask Before Claiming Social Security
Before choosing your claiming age, ask yourself:
✔ What is my actual Full Retirement Age?
✔ What are my estimated benefits at 62, FRA and 70?
✔ Am I still planning to work?
✔ Do I need Social Security income now?
✔ How much do I have in retirement savings?
✔ How would delaying Social Security affect withdrawals from those savings?
✔ What is my health and family longevity history?
✔ Am I married?
✔ Which spouse has the larger benefit?
✔ How important could survivor income become?
✔ How might taxes affect my decision?
✔ Have I considered Medicare enrollment and IRMAA?
There isn't one question that determines the answer.
It's the combination that matters.
🦉 Wise Takeaway
The Social Security decision isn't simply about getting your first check as quickly as possible—or getting the largest possible monthly check.
It's about creating an income strategy that fits the rest of your retirement.
For some people, claiming at 62 makes sense.
For others, Full Retirement Age provides the right balance.
And for people who can comfortably delay and place a high value on larger guaranteed monthly income, waiting until 70 may be attractive.
The important thing is to make the decision deliberately, using your own Social Security numbers and your overall retirement plan.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I work while collecting Social Security?
Yes.
Before Full Retirement Age, however, some benefits may be withheld if your earnings exceed the annual earnings limit. Beginning with the month you reach FRA, earnings no longer reduce your retirement benefits under the earnings test.
Does Social Security increase with inflation?
Social Security benefits can receive annual Cost-of-Living Adjustments (COLAs). The amount isn't guaranteed to be the same every year.
Is waiting until 70 always best?
No.
Waiting until 70 gives you the highest monthly retirement benefit based on your earnings record, but that doesn't automatically make it the best financial decision for every person.
Do my retirement benefits continue growing if I wait beyond 70?
No.
Delayed retirement credits stop increasing your retirement benefit at age 70.
Can I change my mind after claiming?
Sometimes.
SSA allows you to request withdrawal of a retirement-benefit application within certain limits—generally up to 12 months after approval—and repayment requirements apply. A person who has reached FRA may also have the option to voluntarily suspend retirement benefits to earn delayed retirement credits going forward, subject to Social Security's rules.
Because these rules are specific, contact SSA before making a change.
Can my spouse receive half of my age-70 benefit?
Not as a regular spousal benefit simply because you delayed.
The maximum regular spousal benefit at the spouse's FRA is generally based on up to 50% of the worker's Full Retirement Age benefit, not the worker's larger benefit including delayed retirement credits. Survivor-benefit rules are different.
🦉 Wise Reminder
The information in this article is provided for educational purposes only and should not be considered financial, tax, legal, investment or Social Security advice.
Every person's circumstances are different, and Social Security rules can change.
Before making a claiming decision, consider reviewing your personalized information with the Social Security Administration and, when appropriate, a qualified financial or tax professional.
Getting Old Is for the Birds™ strives to provide accurate, useful information, but benefit amounts, earnings limits, Medicare premiums, tax rules and other regulations can change over time.
🦉 Related Reading
💰 10 Common Social Security Mistakes to Avoid
Coming Soon
Learn about common Social Security claiming mistakes and the details worth checking before you apply for retirement benefits.
🏥 Understanding Medicare IRMAA in Plain English
Coming Soon
Learn why some Medicare beneficiaries pay higher premiums, how IRMAA is calculated, and why retirement-income planning can matter.
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