10 Sep Best Age to Claim Social Security: 62, 67, or 70?

When Should You Claim Social Security? Why Age 62, 67, or 70 May Be Right for Different People

You’ve probably heard some version of this retirement advice:

“Wait until 70 to claim Social Security.”

There are good reasons that advice gets repeated.

Waiting beyond your full retirement age can increase your monthly Social Security retirement benefit, up until age 70. For someone who lives well into retirement and has other resources available in the meantime, delaying Social Security can provide a larger monthly income later in life.

But that doesn’t make age 70 the right answer for everyone.

Someone retiring at 62 may need to draw substantially more from investments if Social Security is delayed. Someone else may have health or longevity considerations that make claiming earlier worth evaluating. Married couples also have to consider how one spouse’s claiming decision may eventually affect the income available to a surviving spouse.

And someone with sufficient income and assets to comfortably delay Social Security may reach a very different conclusion.

The best Social Security claiming age isn’t necessarily the age that produces the largest monthly check. It’s the age that best fits the rest of your retirement plan.

Is 70 Always the Best Age to Claim Social Security?

No. Age 70 isn’t automatically the best Social Security claiming age for everyone.

Delaying Social Security can increase the monthly retirement benefit available later, which can be valuable for someone concerned about longevity and the possibility of needing income for many years.

But delaying also means giving up Social Security payments you could have received earlier.

If you retire before 70, the money needed to support your lifestyle while you wait has to come from somewhere.

That could include:

• Cash savings;
• Traditional IRA or 401(k) withdrawals;
• Roth accounts;
• Taxable investments;
• Pension income;
• Part-time employment; or
• Other available income.

Using those resources may have consequences of its own.

That’s why the Social Security decision shouldn’t necessarily begin with:

“How do I get the biggest Social Security check?”

A better question may be:

“How does each claiming age affect the rest of my retirement plan?”

What Happens If You Claim Social Security at 62?

Age 62 is generally the earliest age someone can begin receiving Social Security retirement benefits.

Claiming at 62 means receiving income sooner, but it also generally means accepting a permanently reduced monthly retirement benefit compared with waiting until full retirement age.

The exact reduction depends on the individual’s full retirement age and claiming age.

Why would someone consider claiming early?

Potential reasons could include:

• Needing additional income after retiring;
• Limited assets available to bridge the years before full retirement age or age 70;
• Health or longevity considerations;
• Reducing the amount that must be withdrawn from an investment portfolio;
• Coordinating benefits with a spouse; or
• Other circumstances within the retirement-income plan.

None of those automatically means someone should claim at 62.

But age 62 shouldn’t automatically be treated as a mistake either.

Claiming Social Security early means accepting a smaller monthly benefit in exchange for beginning benefits sooner.

Whether that trade-off makes sense depends on what receiving—or not receiving—that income does to the rest of the financial plan.

What Happens If You Wait Until 70 to Claim Social Security?

For someone who delays Social Security beyond full retirement age, delayed retirement credits can increase the retirement benefit until age 70.

That can create a larger monthly benefit for the remainder of the individual’s life.

A larger Social Security benefit later in retirement can be particularly valuable because it may provide a greater base of recurring income as someone ages.

For some retirees, that can help address longevity risk—the possibility of living much longer than expected and needing retirement income for an extended period.

Waiting may be especially worth evaluating when someone:

• Has sufficient resources to fund the years before Social Security begins;
• Expects a long retirement;
• Wants to increase future Social Security income;
• Is the higher earner in a married couple;
• Is considering the potential survivor benefit available to a spouse; or
• Has other reasons within the broader retirement-income plan to delay.

But there is an important trade-off:

You have to fund the years you’re waiting.

Does Retiring at 62 Mean You Should Claim Social Security at 62?

No. Retiring and claiming Social Security are two separate decisions.

Someone can retire at 62 and delay Social Security until a later age.

For example, a retiree may choose to temporarily fund spending from cash, investments, a pension, or other resources while allowing the future Social Security benefit to increase.

Another retiree may decide that beginning Social Security at 62 reduces the amount that needs to come from investments and better fits the household’s cash-flow needs.

Neither approach is automatically correct.

This distinction matters because people sometimes treat retirement age and Social Security claiming age as if they must be the same.

They don’t.

“When do I want to stop working?” and “When do I want to begin Social Security?” are related questions, but they aren’t the same question.

What Do You Live On While You Wait for Social Security?

This is one of the most important questions in the Social Security claiming decision.

Suppose someone retires at 62 but wants to delay Social Security until 70.

That’s approximately eight years during which their former paycheck is gone and Social Security retirement benefits haven’t yet begun.

Where does the spending money come from?

For some retirees, the answer may be a combination of:

• Cash reserves;
• Investment accounts;
• Traditional retirement accounts;
• Roth accounts;
• Pension benefits;
• A spouse’s income or benefits;
• Part-time work; and
• Other resources.

That doesn’t necessarily make delaying Social Security a bad strategy.

But it means waiting isn’t a decision that should be evaluated only by looking at the future Social Security benefit.

Imagine two people who both want to delay until 70.

One has a pension and substantial cash reserves that cover most of the household’s spending.

The other has to withdraw significantly more from an investment portfolio every year to replace the Social Security income that isn’t being received.

The Social Security increase may be similar, but the effect on their overall retirement plans could be very different.

Waiting for a larger Social Security benefit isn’t free. The financial plan needs to determine what will fund your life while you wait.

How Can Social Security Affect Portfolio Withdrawals?

Social Security and investment withdrawals shouldn’t necessarily be analyzed separately.

If you delay Social Security, your portfolio may need to provide more income during the waiting period.

If you claim Social Security earlier, the monthly benefit may reduce the amount that needs to be withdrawn from investments.

Consider a simplified hypothetical example.

Suppose a retiree needs:

$8,000 per month for planned spending.

Other available recurring income provides:

$3,000 per month.

Without Social Security, the remaining gap is:

$5,000 per month.

If Social Security provides $2,500 per month under a particular claiming scenario, the amount that needs to come from other resources may fall to:

$2,500 per month.

This example isn’t intended to suggest that claiming earlier is better.

The future Social Security benefit would generally be different depending on the claiming age.

Instead, it illustrates an important relationship:

Your Social Security decision can change the job your investment portfolio has to perform.

Could Claiming Social Security Earlier Help During a Market Downturn?

Potentially, but this requires careful analysis.

One risk retirees face is having to withdraw from investments while markets are declining.

If Social Security provides part of the household’s spending needs, the retiree may need to withdraw less from the portfolio.

That could become particularly relevant during the early years of retirement, when significant portfolio losses combined with ongoing withdrawals can create sequence of returns risk.

For example, imagine someone retires and immediately experiences a major market decline.

Delaying Social Security could require larger portfolio withdrawals while investments are down.

Claiming Social Security could potentially reduce those withdrawals—but would also mean accepting the Social Security benefit associated with the earlier claiming age.

The answer isn’t automatically to claim Social Security whenever the market falls.

Markets can recover, Social Security claiming decisions can have long-lasting effects, and changing a long-term retirement strategy based on short-term market movements can create other problems.

The point is that Social Security claiming and portfolio risk are connected.

A claiming strategy should consider what happens to the investment portfolio under different market conditions, rather than assuming Social Security exists in a separate planning box.

What Is the Social Security Break-Even Age?

The Social Security break-even age is the approximate age when the cumulative benefits received by delaying Social Security catch up with the cumulative benefits that would have been received by claiming earlier.

Here’s the basic idea.

If you claim earlier, you receive:

More monthly payments, but a smaller amount per payment.

If you delay, you receive:

Fewer payments initially, but a larger monthly amount later.

Eventually, if someone lives long enough, the cumulative amount received under the delayed strategy may catch up with and then exceed the cumulative amount received under the earlier strategy.

That crossover point is commonly called the break-even age.

It’s useful information.

But it isn’t the entire Social Security decision.

Why Isn’t Social Security Break-Even Analysis Enough?

A simple break-even calculation primarily compares Social Security benefits.

Your retirement plan has many more moving parts.

For example, while waiting for Social Security, you may be withdrawing money from an investment portfolio.

That money could experience investment gains or losses.

Withdrawals may have tax consequences.

A spouse may eventually depend on a survivor benefit.

Your health and longevity may differ from an average assumption.

And the value you place on having income sooner versus having a larger income later may differ from someone else’s.

That’s why:

Your break-even age is a data point. It isn’t your Social Security strategy.

It can be part of the analysis, but it shouldn’t necessarily be the only analysis.

How Do Health and Life Expectancy Affect When You Claim Social Security?

Longevity is one reason delaying Social Security can be attractive.

If someone lives well into their 80s, 90s, or beyond, having a larger monthly benefit later in life may become increasingly valuable.

But no one knows exactly how long they’ll live.

Health circumstances and family longevity history may therefore be part of the discussion.

Someone with a strong family history of longevity and good health may view delaying differently from someone facing significant health concerns.

That doesn’t mean anyone can accurately predict their lifespan.

And a family history isn’t a guarantee of an individual’s outcome.

But Social Security is partly a longevity decision because claiming age changes the balance between:

receiving more income sooner

and

potentially receiving more income later.

The right balance depends on the individual and, for married couples, potentially the longevity of both spouses.

How Should Married Couples Coordinate Social Security?

For married couples, Social Security claiming shouldn’t necessarily be treated as two completely independent decisions.

The household may need to evaluate:

• Each spouse’s retirement benefit;
• The age each spouse plans to retire;
• Other household income;
• Portfolio withdrawals;
• Health and longevity;
• Spousal benefits;
• Potential survivor benefits; and
• What household income may look like after the first spouse dies.

In some households, one spouse may claim earlier while the other delays.

In others, both may delay or both may claim sooner.

The appropriate combination depends on the household’s circumstances.

For married couples, the question isn’t simply, “When should I claim?” It may be, “How should we coordinate our benefits?”

Why Can the Higher Earner’s Social Security Claiming Age Matter?

The higher earner’s claiming decision can be especially important when considering the income available to a surviving spouse.

When one spouse dies, the household doesn’t necessarily continue receiving both Social Security benefits.

Depending on the circumstances and applicable Social Security rules, a surviving spouse may become eligible for a survivor benefit based on the deceased spouse’s record.

That means the higher earner’s claiming decision may affect more than that person’s lifetime income.

It may also affect the income available to the surviving spouse later.

This is one reason a married couple might decide that delaying the higher earner’s benefit deserves particular consideration even if the other spouse begins benefits earlier.

A Social Security strategy for a married couple should consider what happens while both spouses are alive—and what happens after the first spouse dies.

What’s the Difference Between a Spousal Benefit and a Survivor Benefit?

Spousal benefits and survivor benefits are related to Social Security, but they aren’t the same thing.

A spousal benefit may allow an eligible spouse to receive a benefit based partly on the other spouse’s Social Security record while both spouses are living, subject to Social Security rules.

A survivor benefit may become available to an eligible surviving spouse after the other spouse dies.

The rules governing benefit amounts and claiming ages differ, which is why the terms shouldn’t be used interchangeably.

For couples, understanding both can be important when evaluating when each spouse should begin Social Security.

How Does Working While Claiming Social Security Affect Your Benefits?

Someone can begin Social Security retirement benefits and continue working.

However, if benefits are claimed before full retirement age, Social Security’s retirement earnings test may temporarily withhold some benefits when earned income exceeds the applicable annual limit.

The rules and earnings limits can change from year to year, and different rules may apply during the year someone reaches full retirement age.

Amounts withheld because of the retirement earnings test aren’t necessarily permanently lost; Social Security can later adjust the benefit to account for months in which benefits were withheld.

Once full retirement age is reached, the retirement earnings test no longer applies.

This is another reason someone who plans to continue working should evaluate claiming Social Security at 62 differently from someone who has completely retired.

Reaching age 62 doesn’t automatically mean Social Security should begin—especially when employment income is still part of the picture.

How Do Taxes Affect When You Should Claim Social Security?

Social Security claiming decisions can also affect the tax picture.

Depending on a retiree’s other income and individual circumstances, a portion of Social Security benefits may be subject to federal income tax.

Other retirement income may include:

• Traditional IRA withdrawals;
• 401(k) distributions;
• Pension income;
• Investment income;
• Capital gains;
• Roth distributions; and
• Other taxable income.

Changing when Social Security begins can therefore change how different sources of income overlap.

That doesn’t mean the Social Security decision should be based solely on minimizing taxes in one particular year.

But taxes are another reason the claiming decision should be evaluated within the broader retirement-income plan.

Could Delaying Social Security Create a Roth Conversion Opportunity?

Potentially.

Some retirees experience a period after employment income stops but before Social Security and required minimum distributions are fully part of the income picture.

Depending on the individual’s circumstances, those years may be worth evaluating for Roth conversions or other tax-planning decisions.

For example, delaying Social Security could potentially keep taxable income lower during certain years, creating room to consider converting part of a traditional retirement account to Roth.

But that doesn’t automatically make delaying Social Security the better strategy.

The retiree may need larger portfolio withdrawals while waiting, and Roth conversions themselves generally create taxable income.

The analysis needs to consider both sides.

A Social Security claiming decision can affect the tax plan, and the tax plan can affect the Social Security strategy.

How Does Social Security Fit Into Your Retirement Paycheck?

Social Security is usually one component of retirement income rather than the entire retirement paycheck.

A household’s retirement income might look something like:

Social Security

+

Pension income

+

Portfolio withdrawals

+

Cash reserves

+

Other income

=

Your retirement paycheck

Changing when Social Security begins changes how much the other pieces may need to provide.

That’s why claiming Social Security isn’t just a benefits decision.

It’s a retirement-income decision.

What Should You Compare Before Choosing a Social Security Claiming Age?

Rather than choosing an age based on a general rule, it may be useful to compare several claiming scenarios.

For example:

• What would the estimated benefit be at 62?
• What would it be at full retirement age?
• What would it be at 70?
• How will you fund spending while delaying?
• How much would need to come from investments under each scenario?
• What happens if markets decline early in retirement?
• How does the decision affect your spouse?
• What survivor benefit may eventually be available?
• How might taxes change?
• Are there potential Roth conversion years?
• Are you still working?
• How do health and longevity considerations affect the decision?

Modeling several scenarios can reveal trade-offs that a simple break-even calculator may not show.

The purpose isn’t to predict exactly what will happen.

It’s to understand what each decision requires from the rest of the retirement plan.

Frequently Asked Questions About When to Claim Social Security

Is It Better to Take Social Security at 62 or 70?

Neither age is automatically better for everyone. Claiming at 62 generally provides a smaller monthly retirement benefit sooner, while delaying until 70 can provide a larger monthly benefit later. The appropriate choice can depend on cash flow, health and longevity, portfolio withdrawals, other income, taxes, marital circumstances, and survivor-benefit considerations.

What Is the Best Age to Claim Social Security?

There is no single best Social Security claiming age for every retiree. The appropriate age depends on individual and household circumstances, including retirement timing, other income, available savings, health, longevity expectations, spousal considerations, taxes, and how Social Security fits into the overall retirement-income strategy.

Can I Retire at 62 and Wait Until 70 for Social Security?

Yes. Retirement age and Social Security claiming age don’t have to be the same. Someone who retires at 62 may choose to fund spending from cash, investments, pensions, a spouse’s income, or other resources while delaying Social Security. Whether doing so makes sense depends on the individual’s overall retirement plan.

Does Social Security Increase If I Wait Until 70?

For eligible retirement benefits, delaying beyond full retirement age can result in delayed retirement credits that increase the monthly benefit up to age 70. There is generally no additional delayed retirement credit for waiting beyond age 70.

What Is the Break-Even Age for Social Security?

The Social Security break-even age is the approximate point when cumulative benefits from delaying Social Security catch up with cumulative benefits that would have been received by claiming earlier. While useful, break-even analysis doesn’t capture every factor involved in a claiming decision, including portfolio withdrawals, taxes, survivor benefits, health, and other retirement-income considerations.

Should the Higher-Earning Spouse Delay Social Security?

Delaying the higher earner’s Social Security benefit may be worth evaluating because the decision can potentially affect both the higher earner’s future benefit and the survivor benefit available to an eligible spouse. However, household cash flow, health, longevity, other assets, and each spouse’s benefits should also be considered.

Can I Work and Collect Social Security at 62?

Yes, but someone who claims Social Security before full retirement age and continues working may have some benefits temporarily withheld under the Social Security retirement earnings test if earned income exceeds the applicable annual limit. The rules and limits change periodically, so current Social Security guidance should be reviewed before making a claiming decision.

Does Claiming Social Security Affect Roth Conversions?

It can. Social Security benefits may affect the household’s overall tax picture, while Roth conversions generally create taxable income. Delaying Social Security may create different tax-planning opportunities in some retirement years, but the appropriate strategy depends on the retiree’s other income, withdrawals, tax circumstances, and long-term plan.

There Isn’t One “Right” Social Security Age

Age 62 isn’t automatically too early.

Age 70 isn’t automatically better.

And full retirement age isn’t automatically the perfect compromise.

Each represents a different trade-off between receiving income sooner and potentially receiving a larger monthly benefit later.

The decision becomes much more useful when Social Security is viewed alongside the rest of retirement:

Your spending.

Your investments.

Your taxes.

Your spouse.

Your health.

Your other income.

Your long-term goals.

Your Social Security break-even age can provide useful information.

But:

Your break-even age is a data point. It isn’t your Social Security strategy.

The larger question is what each claiming choice does to the financial plan surrounding it.

Does Your Social Security Claiming Strategy Fit Your Retirement Plan?

Social Security may be one of the most important sources of retirement income you’ll receive, and the age you choose to begin benefits can affect more than the size of the monthly payment.

At Nova Wealth Management, we help individuals and families evaluate Social Security alongside portfolio withdrawals, retirement spending, taxes, other income sources, and long-term financial goals.

If you’re approaching retirement and wondering whether 62, full retirement age, 70, or somewhere in between makes sense for you, consider evaluating the decision as part of your complete retirement-income plan.

Schedule a Meeting with Nova Wealth Management to discuss your retirement-income strategy.

Toll-Free: (888) 677-9910

---

This article was developed using concepts discussed in the September 10, 2026 Forbes article by Andrew Rosen regarding Social Security claiming decisions, including claiming at age 62, delaying benefits, break-even analysis, health and longevity, retirement cash flow, portfolio withdrawals, and spousal and survivor considerations. Nova Wealth Management has expanded upon the topic for educational purposes.

Disclosure: Nova Wealth Management, Inc. is a Registered Investment Advisor. This material is provided for general educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as personalized investment, tax, legal, or Social Security advice. Social Security rules and benefits depend on individual circumstances and may change. Examples are hypothetical and for illustrative purposes only. Claiming Social Security earlier generally results in a lower monthly retirement benefit than waiting until full retirement age, while delayed retirement credits may increase eligible retirement benefits through age 70. Social Security claiming decisions may also affect spouses and survivors and can interact with employment income, taxes, retirement-account withdrawals, and other financial-planning considerations. Individuals should review their circumstances and current Social Security rules and consult appropriate financial, tax, and legal professionals before making a claiming decision.