When Should You Claim Social Security? Compare 62, 67 and 70

One birth cohort, three claiming ages

Assume a worker born in 1964 with a $3,000 monthly full-retirement-age benefit, no additional earnings changes, and all amounts in 2026 dollars before tax. SSA’s 1960-or-later rules use full retirement age 67: claiming at 62 is 70% and at 70 is 124% of the unreduced benefit.

Price the waiting years and household effects

If work ends at 62, waiting until 67 forgoes five full years of $25,200 payments: $126,000 before investment returns, COLAs and taxes. Waiting from 67 to 70 forgoes another three years of the age-67 amount: $108,000 on that comparison. These are separate comparisons, not a lifetime break-even calculation. Test whether accessible assets can carry the resulting retirement bridge.

Benefits claimed before full retirement age can be withheld under the retirement earnings test; the annual limits and the year FRA is reached matter. Higher later earnings may also replace a lower earnings year. Spousal and survivor payments have their own rules and should not be assumed to equal the sum of two worker benefits.

Record both partners’ estimates and the likely survivor phase. Rest of the Road currently uses one household benefit input, an age-67-based adjustment and one claim age, so it is a simplified comparison rather than a complete claiming optimizer. See how to enter the SSA estimate to avoid adjusting it twice.

Know the three ages in the decision

Retirement benefits can generally begin as early as age 62, but claiming before full retirement age reduces the monthly benefit. Full retirement age depends on birth year. Waiting beyond full retirement age can increase the retirement benefit until age 70; there is no additional delayed-retirement credit for waiting past 70.

Use your actual Social Security statement rather than a generic estimate whenever possible. The statement reflects your earnings record and shows estimates at different claiming ages. Check the official full-retirement-age calculator because the age is not 65 for many people approaching retirement today.

Planning takeaway

Gather age-specific estimates for comparison. In this planner, enter the annual full-retirement-age estimate and set the claiming age separately.

Measure the cost of waiting

Delaying benefits can strengthen later dependable income, but it creates a bridge that must be funded. If work income has ended, the bridge may come from cash, taxable investments, retirement accounts, part-time work, or lower spending. Those withdrawals can affect taxes and sequence-of-returns risk.

A claiming comparison should therefore show more than a break-even age. Review liquid assets through the waiting period, the downside runout age, taxes, and covered spending after benefits begin. Delaying may improve one measure while creating pressure in another.

• Claim nowAdds income sooner and may reduce near-term withdrawals, but locks in a lower monthly benefit than waiting.
• WaitRaises later monthly income, while the household funds more of the bridge.
• Work longerMay fund the bridge and can affect the earnings record, depending on work history.

Treat it as a household decision

For couples, the two claiming choices interact in actual benefit planning, although this app’s current intake uses one combined benefit and claim age. Spousal and survivor benefits follow specific rules, and after one spouse dies the household may lose one benefit while many expenses remain. The higher earner's claiming decision can therefore affect the surviving spouse's future income floor.

Health and longevity expectations matter, but they are uncertain and personal. A household that needs income now, faces a shorter expected lifespan, or cannot comfortably fund the bridge may reach a different decision from one with other assets and a strong reason to protect survivor income.

Compare claiming ages cleanly

Create side-by-side scenarios at 62, full retirement age, and 70 with other inputs fixed. Gather age-specific SSA estimates as a check, but in this app enter the annual full-retirement-age amount and change the separate claim-age setting; the app applies its own adjustment.

Compare cumulative benefits, portfolio withdrawals during the bridge, after-tax cash flow, later covered spending, and critical downside paths. The purpose is not to discover a universal best age. It is to see which tradeoff fits the household and remains workable under uncertainty.