Retirement income
When to claim Social Security
What is the best age to claim Social Security?
For most people in reasonable health, delaying increases lifetime benefits. Each year of delay past full retirement age raises the benefit by roughly eight percent until 70. But the right answer depends on marital status, health, and what else funds the gap. For married couples, the higher earner's timing matters most because it sets the survivor benefit.
The short version
- Claiming before full retirement age permanently reduces your monthly benefit; claiming after increases it by approximately 8% per year until age 70.
- There is no additional increase for delaying past age 70.
- When one spouse dies, the survivor keeps the larger of the two benefits, which makes the higher earner's claiming age the more consequential decision.
- Benefits claimed before full retirement age are subject to an earnings test if you continue working, though withheld amounts are recalculated later.
Why break-even analysis misleads people
The standard framing compares total dollars received under each claiming age and identifies the age at which delaying overtakes claiming early, usually somewhere in the late seventies to early eighties.
That analysis treats Social Security as an investment to be maximized in expectation. It is better understood as insurance against living a long time, which is the scenario where a portfolio is most likely to fail. Under that framing, the question is not 'will I come out ahead on average' but 'which choice protects me in the outcome I cannot afford.' Delaying buys inflation-adjusted, government-backed income for exactly that case.
How married couples should think about it
When one spouse dies, the survivor keeps the larger of the two benefits and the smaller one stops. That single rule reorganizes the whole decision.
It means the higher earner's claiming age sets a floor on household income for as long as either spouse lives, potentially thirty-five years or more from the higher earner's retirement. Delaying the higher earner's benefit is often the single most effective longevity hedge available to a couple, even when the lower earner claims early.
When claiming early makes sense
Delaying is not universally correct. Claiming earlier is reasonable when:
- Health or family history makes a long life genuinely unlikely
- You are the lower earner in a couple and the higher earner is delaying
- You have no other income and delaying would mean depleting the portfolio at an unsustainable rate
- You are single with limited assets and need the cash flow now
The interaction with Roth conversions
Delaying Social Security does something else useful: it keeps taxable income low in the intervening years, which is exactly the condition that makes Roth conversions attractive.
A retiree bridging from 62 to 70 on portfolio withdrawals has eight years of unusually low reported income. Filling brackets with conversions during that window, then turning on a larger Social Security benefit afterward, is a common and effective pairing. The two decisions should be made together rather than separately.
Questions
Follow-ups we get asked.
Before full retirement age, yes. An earnings test withholds benefits above an annual threshold. The withheld amount is not lost permanently; your benefit is recalculated upward at full retirement age. After full retirement age there is no earnings test.
Up to 85% of benefits can be included in taxable income, depending on your combined income. This is one reason withdrawal sequencing and Social Security timing should be planned together rather than in isolation.
Rarely. The common approach is for the higher earner to delay, because that benefit becomes the survivor benefit, while the lower earner claims earlier to provide cash flow. That combination captures most of the longevity protection at less cost.
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This article is general educational information, current as of July 29, 2026. It is not personalized investment, tax, or legal advice, and it does not take into account any individual's circumstances. Tax and benefit rules change; verify current rules against official sources before acting. TradeWinds does not provide tax or legal advice.