Should I take Social Security at 62 or 67?

It depends on how long you live, which nobody knows. Claiming at 62 pays 70% of your full benefit for anyone born in 1960 or later, but pays it for five extra years; claiming at 67 pays the full amount but starts later. The cumulative totals typically cross in your late 70s — live past the break-even and waiting wins. People in poor health or who need income now lean early; people with longevity in the family, other income to bridge the gap, or a spouse who will inherit their benefit lean late.

How much do I lose by claiming at 62?

With a full retirement age of 67, claiming at 62 cuts your check by 30% — you receive 70% of your full benefit, permanently. The SSA's published reduction is 5/9 of 1% per month for the first 36 months before full retirement age plus 5/12 of 1% per month beyond that, which over 60 months adds up to exactly 30%. A $2,000 full benefit becomes $1,400.

What is the Social Security break-even age?

It's the age at which a later claimer's cumulative benefits catch up with an earlier claimer's head start. For a full retirement age of 67, claiming at 67 overtakes claiming at 62 around age 78–79, and claiming at 70 overtakes 62 around age 80–81. Live past your break-even and the later claim pays more every remaining month of your life; fall short of it and the early checks were the better deal.

Does waiting until 70 really pay 24% more?

Yes — delayed retirement credits are 2/3 of 1% per month (8% per year) for anyone born in 1943 or later, so waiting 36 months past a full retirement age of 67 pays 124% of your full benefit. For those with an FRA of 66, waiting to 70 pays 132%. The credits stop accruing at 70, so there is no reason to wait past it.

Does working while claiming Social Security change this?

Before your full retirement age, yes: the earnings test withholds $1 of benefits for every $2 you earn above an annual limit (and $1 per $3 above a higher limit in the year you reach FRA). The withheld money isn't lost — SSA recalculates your benefit upward at FRA to credit those months — but it means claiming at 62 while working full-time often nets you little now while still locking in the permanent reduction. Once you reach FRA, the earnings test disappears entirely.

Social Security Break-Even Calculator

Enter the benefit from your Social Security statement and a planning age, and see the monthly check, lifetime total, and break-even age for claiming at 62, 65, your full retirement age, or 70 — charted so you can watch the lines cross.

How the Social Security break-even math works

Social Security doesn't care when you claim — it cares that the total it expects to pay you stays roughly the same. Claim early and you get more checks, each permanently smaller; wait and you get fewer checks, each permanently bigger. The exact adjustments are published by the SSA: claiming before your full retirement age cuts your benefit by 5/9 of 1% per month for the first 36 months early, plus 5/12 of 1% per month beyond that (ssa.gov). For anyone born in 1960 or later, full retirement age is 67 (ssa.gov), so claiming at 62 — 60 months early — means 70% of your full benefit, permanently. Waiting past FRA earns delayed retirement credits of 2/3 of 1% per month, 8% per year, until they stop at age 70 (ssa.gov) — which puts an FRA-67 claimer at 124% at age 70.

This calculator turns those rules into money: your monthly check at 62, 65, your FRA, and 70, your cumulative total at each age, and the break-even ages where a later claim's fewer-but-bigger checks overtake an earlier claim's head start. The chart shows all three cumulative lines from age 62 to your planning age — the crossings are the famous break-even points. Totals are nominal, with no cost-of-living adjustment: COLAs scale every claiming path by roughly the same percentage each year, so leaving them out barely moves the break-even ages while keeping the numbers in today's terms.

The formula

monthly check = FRA benefit × factor
early factor = 1 − (5⁄9 of 1% × months early, first 36) − (5⁄12 of 1% × months beyond 36)
late factor = 1 + (2⁄3 of 1% × months past FRA, through age 70)
break-even age (months) = (m_late × start_late − m₆₂ × 744) ÷ (m_late − m₆₂)

FRA benefit is the monthly amount on your Social Security statement (your primary insurance amount), months early/late counts from your full retirement age, and m₆₂ and m_late are the monthly checks for the two claiming ages being compared, with 744 being age 62 in months. Cumulative totals grow in straight lines, so the break-even — where the later claim's total catches the earlier one's — comes straight from solving where those lines cross.

Worked example

Maria, born in 1962, has $2,000/month at her FRA of 67 on her SSA statement, and plans to age 90.

Her monthly check: $1,400 at 62 (70%), $1,733.33 at 65, $2,000 at 67, $2,480 at 70 (124%). Totals by age 90: $470,400 claiming at 62, $520,000 at 65, $552,000 at 67, and $595,200 at 70.

Waiting until 70 comes out $43,200 ahead of claiming at 67 and $124,800 ahead of claiming at 62 by age 90. The break-evens vs 62: age 77 yrs 7 mo for claiming at 65, age 78 yrs 8 mo for 67, and age 80 yrs 4 mo for 70. Live past your break-even and waiting won; fall short and the early checks were the better deal.

The break-even zone — and what this calculator can't know

Run any realistic benefit through the math and the break-evens cluster in the same place: the late 70s to early 80s. That's not a coincidence — the SSA designed the adjustments to be roughly actuarially fair for average life expectancy. Which reveals what this decision actually is: waiting is longevity insurance. If you live to 95, claiming at 70 wins enormously — and keeps winning every year. If you die at 72, claiming at 62 won and nobody got to say so. Since nobody knows their date, this is a personal risk decision, not a math problem with one right answer. The honest tiebreakers: people in poor health or who need the money now lean early; people with long-lived parents, other income to bridge the gap, or a fear of outliving their savings lean late.

Three things this simple comparison omits, each honestly: spousal and survivor benefits — if you're the higher earner, waiting also raises the check your surviving spouse keeps for life, which strengthens the case for delay beyond anything on this page. Taxes — up to 85% of benefits can be taxable depending on your other income, which can shift the after-tax picture either way. And the earnings test — claim before FRA while still working and SSA temporarily withholds benefits above an earnings limit (mostly returned later as a recomputed benefit, but it guts the case for claiming early while employed). Based on published SSA formulas as of 2026 — your actual benefit comes from the SSA, and this decision has personal factors no calculator can weigh.