Social Security
When should each of you start Social Security?
Claim early and you collect smaller checks for longer. Wait and you collect larger checks for less time. For a couple, there's a twist: when one of you dies, the survivor keeps the larger of your two checks — so the higher earner's decision to wait isn't bought for their own lifespan, but for whichever of you lives longer.
Your numbers
Lifetime benefits by claiming age
Each line is one strategy for the higher earner. Where waiting overtakes claiming early is your breakeven — if the longer-living spouse reaches past that age, waiting paid off.
What it works out to
Show the full picture — both lifespans at once
The chart above holds one death at your planning age and varies the other. This grid varies both independently. Each cell is one pair of lifespans: green where the higher earner waiting to 70 wins, red where claiming at 62 wins. It's the one view that also shows what happens if the lower earner dies first.
What this does and doesn't account for, and where the rules come from
This models a married couple: two benefit amounts, two claiming ages, the spousal benefit (a lower earner can draw up to 50% of the higher earner's full-retirement-age amount), and the survivor rule (when one spouse dies, the survivor keeps the larger of the two checks). It does not account for the earnings test if you keep working before full retirement age, income tax on benefits, or divorced-spouse benefits — each can move the answer.
Born before 1960? This version assumes a full retirement age of 67, which applies to anyone born in 1960 or later. If you were born earlier, your full retirement age is younger and your numbers will differ — the figures here won't be right for you.
The discount rate is the real return you assume you could earn on benefits taken earlier; a higher rate makes claiming early look better. The life-expectancy inputs are planning ages you choose — they're marked on the chart, not predictions, and you can move them to see how the answer shifts.
Everything runs in your browser. Nothing you enter is sent anywhere or saved. This is information to help you think, not financial advice.
Where the rules come from — each links to the government page that defines it:
- Early-claim reductions, the different spousal reduction, and survivor reductions: Code of Federal Regulations section 404.410 (with worked dollar examples)
- Delayed retirement credits (8% per year, stopping at 70): Code of Federal Regulations section 404.313
- Full retirement age 67 for those born in 1960 or later: Social Security Administration
- Your own benefit estimate: your my Social Security account