When to Take Social Security: The Questions That Decide It

You can claim Social Security retirement benefits any time from 62 to 70. Claim before your full retirement age (67 for anyone born in 1960 or later) and the benefit is permanently reduced, by about 30% if you claim at 62. Wait past full retirement age and it grows 8% a year until 70. Those numbers are set by law and apply to everyone. What is not the same for everyone is the answer to when to claim, and it turns on five questions.

1. Are you still working?

If you claim before full retirement age and keep working, Social Security withholds $1 of benefit for every $2 you earn above an annual limit ($24,480 in 2026). The withheld amount is credited back later, but the practical effect is that claiming early while working full time rarely makes sense.

2. How is your health, and your family's?

The break-even for delaying from 62 to 70 is typically somewhere in the late 70s to early 80s. If you reach that age, delaying paid off; if you do not, claiming early did. A healthy 62-year-old with long-lived parents has a different answer from someone with a serious diagnosis. This is the one question a calculator cannot answer for you.

3. What happens to your spouse?

This is the question most people skip, and it is often the one that matters most. When one spouse dies, the survivor keeps the larger of the two benefits and loses the smaller one. If the higher earner delays to 70, the survivor's benefit is locked in at that higher level for the rest of their life. For married couples it is common for the right answer to be that the higher earner delays and the lower earner claims earlier, even if neither would choose that on their own.

4. What will you live on in the meantime?

Delaying only works if you can pay the bills from 62 to 70 without doing something expensive, such as selling investments in a down market or draining the account you were going to use for Roth conversions. Which brings up the next question.

5. What does it do to your taxes?

Up to 85% of your benefit can be taxable, depending on your other income. The years before you claim are often the best years for Roth conversions, because the benefit is not yet adding to your income. Delaying Social Security and converting during the gap is one of the most common combinations we recommend, and one that only shows up when you look at the whole plan rather than the Social Security decision alone.

What we do

We run the claiming decision as part of the full income plan: both spouses, both benefits, survivor outcomes, taxes, and what fills the gap. The answer is specific to you, and it is usually not the one on the Social Security statement.

Social Security rules and figures change annually; verify current amounts at ssa.gov. This article is for general education only and is not investment, tax, or legal advice. Investment advisory services are offered through Foundations Investment Advisors, LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. Investments involve risk, including possible loss of principal.