Social Security claim age: 62 vs 67 vs 70, with worked numbers

You can claim Social Security as early as 62 or as late as 70. The difference between those two choices, for an average earner, is roughly 76% more monthly income for life — and most retirees still claim early.

Here's the math, walked through with real 2026 numbers, and the situations where each choice is defensible.

The three claim ages, side by side

Take a worker with a Primary Insurance Amount (PIA) of $2,000/month at full retirement age (FRA) of 67. The Social Security Administration applies a fixed schedule of adjustments:

• Claim at 62: monthly benefit is reduced by 30% → $1,400/month.
• Claim at 67: full benefit → $2,000/month.
• Claim at 70: monthly benefit is increased by 24% → $2,480/month.

The 70-year-old gets 77% more per month than the 62-year-old — for life. Both get COLA adjustments each year. Both get spousal and survivor benefits computed off their own benefit amount.

"But I get more years of payments!"

This is the most common defense of claiming at 62: you get 5 to 8 extra years of checks. Doesn't that make up for the smaller monthly amount?

Let's run the numbers. Cumulative lifetime payments, ignoring COLA for simplicity:

Claim age	Monthly	Total by age 75	Total by age 85	Total by age 90
62	$1,400	$218,400	$386,400	$470,400
67	$2,000	$192,000	$432,000	$552,000
70	$2,480	$148,800	$446,400	$595,200

The crossover ages are roughly 78 (62 vs 67) and 82 (67 vs 70). If you live to 85, claiming at 70 puts you ahead by $76,800 over claiming at 62. If you live to 90, the gap widens to $124,800.

The mortality question

The honest counter-argument: the average 62-year-old American man has a life expectancy of about 21 more years (to age 83). The average 62-year-old American woman, about 24 more years (to age 86). So roughly half of single men should be indifferent between claiming at 62 and at 70 on a pure lifetime-dollars basis.

Two things change that math:

1. Couples. When the higher earner dies, the surviving spouse gets the higher of their own benefit or the deceased's benefit, for life. Delaying the higher earner's claim raises the survivor benefit too — often by decades.
2. Longevity tail risk. Running out of money at 90 is a much worse outcome than "losing" a few thousand dollars to claiming late. Social Security is a lifetime annuity that the federal government can't deliver less of without an act of Congress. Buying more of it by waiting is uniquely valuable insurance.

When 62 is defensible

• You have a serious health condition that materially shortens your life expectancy.
• You need the cash to avoid liquidating retirement investments at a bad time — e.g., 2009. Tapping Social Security early to avoid selling stocks at the bottom can preserve more wealth than the higher monthly amount would have generated.
• You're the lower earner in a couple and your spouse is delaying. Family optimal claiming strategies often have the lower earner claim at 62 and the higher earner delay to 70.

When 70 is defensible

• You expect to live long. Family longevity, healthy lifestyle, female single household — all push toward 70.
• You're the higher earner in a couple. Delaying maximizes the survivor benefit.
• You can afford to bridge the gap with savings or part-time work. Every year you delay is a 6-8% guaranteed increase in your annual benefit — better than any bond.

The Yearfold approach

Yearfold's calculator includes a Social Security claim-age optimizer that runs your plan at every claim age from 62 to 70 and shows the success probability at each age. For most households we see, the optimal claim age sits between 67 and 70.

Try it on your numbers and see how much the claim age moves your own success probability.