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 by year paid, 2001 to 2027
Actual SSA cost-of-living adjustments, listed by the year they were paid. The 26-year average is ~2.6%. Default of 2.5% is close to that long-run average.
2026: 2.8% is the COLA being paid now (announced October 2025). *2027 is an RLF estimate from CPI-W through August 2026, not an official number. SSA announces the 2027 COLA in October 2026 (expected Oct 14). Each year shown is the year the COLA is paid, starting in January; it is announced the October before. 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 and with 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 to 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" and lock 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.
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Hans Goldstein
Founder & Executive Director · Retirement Literacy Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit
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People also ask
How much Social Security will I get at 67?
If 67 is your full retirement age (born 1960 or later), you get 100% of your primary insurance amount, the figure on your my Social Security statement. Claiming at 62 would pay 70% of it and waiting to 70 would pay 124%.
What is the best age to take Social Security?
There is no single best age. Claiming early gives smaller checks for longer; waiting gives larger checks for life. Health, other income, whether you are still working, and a spouse's survivor benefit usually decide it. In plain dollars, waiting from 62 to 70 pays off if you live past about 80.
Social Security at 62 vs 66: what is the difference?
With a full retirement age of 67, claiming at 62 pays 70% of your full benefit and claiming at 66 pays about 93.3%. That is roughly 33% more per month for waiting four years, for life, plus larger cost-of-living raises in dollar terms.
Related
Sources: SSA benefit reduction for early retirement; SSA delayed retirement credits. Checked October 3, 2026.