Who's filing?
Toggle off if you're running this for one person only. With spouse on, the calculator handles spousal benefits and the survivor drop automatically.
You (Primary)
Spouse
Filing scenarios to compare
Your planned age is highlighted. The other three are stress-test scenarios — earliest possible (62), full retirement age (67), and maximize (70).
Your Planned Filing
Earliest 62
FRA 67
Maximize 70
Inflation assumptions
SS COLA averaged ~2.6% over the last 20 years. Real cost-of-living for retirees (medical + housing weighted) typically runs higher. Dial both to see the gap.
View historical SS COLA, 2000–2026
Actual SSA cost-of-living adjustments. The 26-year average is ~2.6%. Default of 2.5% reflects the recent 10-year norm.
*2026 is an RLF estimate; the SSA announces the actual COLA each October. Source: ssa.gov/cola
What you're looking at, in plain English
The number above is the difference in total Social Security benefits you'll collect over your lifetime depending on when you start claiming.
The basic trade-off
- Claim at 62: smallest monthly check (~30% less than your full benefit), but you start collecting 5 years earlier.
- Claim at 67 (full retirement age for most): your "100%" benefit, no reduction.
- Claim at 70: each year you delay past 67 adds 8% per year to your check — guaranteed by Congress, no investment risk. By 70, your check is 24% bigger than at 67 and roughly 76% bigger than at 62.
The break-even age
Delaying gives bigger checks; claiming early gives more checks. The two paths cross somewhere around age 80–82. If you live past that, delaying pays more in total. If you don't, claiming early wins.
Why most people get this wrong
- They claim at 62 "to get what they paid in" — locking in the smallest check for life.
- They forget the survivor benefit: when one spouse dies, the survivor keeps the higher of the two checks. So the higher earner delaying protects the surviving spouse, sometimes for 20+ years.
- They underestimate longevity. A healthy 65-year-old couple has roughly a 50% chance of one spouse living past 90.
What this calculator does
It models your monthly check at each claiming age, totals the lifetime payouts to your planned age, and shows which age maximizes total benefits.
Get Help Understanding Your Math
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What Happens Next
Hans will personally walk through your numbers and email you within 24 hours with a plain-English explanation of how the publicly available SSA rules produced them. This is free educational math help from a 501(c)(3) nonprofit — not a financial advisor relationship, not a recommendation, not a sales call.
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This tool runs the math. Hans walks through how the publicly available SSA rules produce your specific numbers. Pure math education, not financial advice. No products sold. No pressure.
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