When To Claim Social Security Benefits in Retirement

Social Security can provide a stable source of income in retirement. Yet, figuring out when you should start claiming benefits is a tough decision. Your timing can affect your benefit amount.

Age 62 is the earliest you can begin taking Social Security retirement benefits. But you don’t have to start your benefits that soon. The longer you wait, the higher your monthly payments will be. The downside is that you may have to work longer or use other resources to cover your living expenses in the meantime.

Once you start receiving benefits, you can’t undo that decision. That’s why you should consider many factors before applying for your Social Security payments. This article explains these factors, but you can also get strategic advice from a retirement planning lawyer. An attorney can evaluate your individual circumstances to help you navigate this phase of life.

Three Options: Early, Full, and Late Retirement

Under the Social Security laws, you can begin to receive your retirement payments based on your age as follows:

• Early retirement age is 62
• Full retirement age (FRA) varies by year you were born
• Late retirement age is any age after your FRA up to age 70

As the laws are currently set up, your full retirement age will be somewhere between 66 and 67 years of age based on the year you were born. If you were born on January 1st, use the previous year’s FRA.

To find out your retirement age, consult the following chart from the Social Security Administration (SSA).

Claiming Before Full Retirement Age

You can choose to claim your Social Security retirement benefits before you reach your full retirement age. However, you will receive an amount less than you would if you waited until your FRA.

The amount of benefits will be proportional to the number of months left until your FRA. For example, you would get a larger check if you wait until age 64 instead of age 62, even though you are still below FRA. Typically, if you retire at the earliest possible age, you will receive between 20 and 30 percent less than you would at FRA.

Claiming at Full Retirement Age

If you start claiming Social Security benefits at your FRA, you will receive your full retirement benefits. Full benefits are also known as the “primary insurance amount” (PIA). This amount is considered 100% of your Social Security payments.

Yet, your PIA isn’t the maximum possible amount you may claim. You could wait longer to become eligible to collect more than 100% of your full benefits.

Claiming at a Late Retirement Age

You might not be ready to retire when you hit your full retirement age. The Social Security Administration incentivizes working past your FRA by providing larger checks.

As you wait, you can gain delayed retirement credits. Before you can start gaining them, you must meet all the eligibility requirements when you reach your FRA, such as earning enough regular Social Security credits to qualify for benefits. Between your FRA and the age of 70, your future Social Security benefits will increase between 3 and 8 percent each year.

How Much Is the Social Security Benefit Amount?

The average payment for retirees in 2026 is around $2,000 per month, but actual monthly payments vary from person to person. Your full retirement benefit amount may be higher or lower than this average. The SSA calculates retirement benefit payments based on your top 35 years of earnings. It also factors in a cost-of-living adjustment each year.

You’ll need to know your full Social Security benefit amount to decide which age is right for you. The SSA offers a few resources to help you estimate your benefits. You can read your SSA retirement statements online or by contacting your local Social Security office. These statements provide personalized summaries of the benefits you could expect at 62, full retirement age, and 70. You can also use the SSA’s online benefits calculator for various retirement scenarios.

Once you start collecting benefits, any new tax contributions you make won’t count toward recalculating your benefit amount. This is important to understand if you plan to keep working while collecting benefits.

How To Choose Your Retirement Age

Deciding when to collect benefits is a very personal decision. Often, the decision becomes a matter of whether you need the money right away.

Yet, early retirement may not be the best option for you. The following questions may help guide you to the best choice for your situation.

Are You Currently Working?

If you are still physically and mentally able to work, you may want to consider keeping your job to get higher retirement payments later. Yet, there are some jobs where workers have a hard time working past the age of 62. These jobs typically involve manual labor, such as construction or warehouse jobs. In these careers, you may consider claiming Social Security benefits as early as possible.

You may also want to wait until you’re done working to avoid penalties on your benefits. Imagine you are still working, but you want to start collecting Social Security benefits to raise your overall income. You would lose one dollar in retirement benefits for each two dollars you make over the SSA’s earnings limit.

If you wait until at least full retirement age to claim your retirement benefits, there is no earnings limit. This means the SSA won’t decrease your benefits — no matter how high your wages are. Also note that collecting a pension will not hurt your retirement benefits.

What Is Your Life Expectancy?

If you are in good health, you might expect a long retirement. There’s no way to know exactly how many years of retirement you’ll need your money to cover. But you can consider your current health, retirement lifestyle, and family history. Certain medical conditions may shorten your lifespan. Some people would rather collect benefits sooner to enjoy retirement before a serious condition either appears or worsens.

Where Is Your Break-Even Point?

If you can estimate your lifespan, you may be able to calculate when you would “break even.” This point is the age when you would have received the same total amount of benefits between your early, full, and late retirement ages.

You can think about it like a race. In an early retirement, your lower monthly benefits get a head start, but the total amount you’ve collected accumulates slowly. A later retirement has higher benefits, so your total amount accumulates faster. Eventually, it will outpace the first option. You’re looking for the point at which both totals become equal. After that point, the late retirement benefits would be more valuable over the course of your lifetime, so they would win the “race.”

For example, you may calculate that your total benefits would have been equal by age 80 — regardless of whether you took early or late retirement benefits. Age 80 would be your break-even point. If you expect to live longer than age 80 in this example, you might want to delay retirement to get a higher lifetime benefit amount. But if you anticipate a shorter lifespan, claiming benefits early would pay a higher lifetime benefit amount.

Keep in mind that this framework does not account for the potential gains or losses of investing your benefits over time. Investing your early retirement benefits may or may not outpace the increase of delaying your benefits each year.

Do You Have a Spouse or Family Members?

If you have dependents or a spouse that may survive you, you may want to wait until at least full retirement age to start claiming Social Security benefits. If you collect early, their claim to survivor benefits would also be lower.

In some marriages, spouses earn significantly different incomes. Since benefits are based on average earnings before retirement, one spouse’s monthly payments would be higher. Both spouses might have the same percentage increase the longer they wait to retire. Yet, that percentage translates to different dollar amounts for each spouse.

Spouses in this situation may choose to stagger retirement ages. For example, a lower-earning spouse may retire at 62 and collect benefits early. The higher-earning spouse may wait until age 70. That way, even if the higher-earning spouse passes away first, the surviving spouse can collect their full spousal benefits.

What Do You Need the Money For?

Think about what expenses you’ll probably have at age 62 versus your later years. Budgeting for retirement means different things to everyone.

Some people need extra income immediately to pay for necessities of life, such as food and housing. Other people choose to use their retirement income for a tropical vacation or a home addition.

If you don’t need help to afford basic necessities now, you may want to avoid missing out on long-term benefits. Waiting to collect benefits may be a safer strategy to ensure you’ll have enough money to cover the basics throughout your lifetime. If you still want that vacation, you may want to consider whether using other retirement funds may be better.

Ask a Lawyer About When to Start Claiming Social Security

It’s complicated to figure out how to set up your finances in order before you retire. This challenge often includes a blend of Social Security benefits, pensions, and retirement savings. Learning the best way to maximize these benefits can be confusing. Get some peace of mind by speaking with a Social Security attorney in your area.