When to Take Social Security: 62, Full Retirement Age, or 70

Almost everyone I sit down with in their early sixties asks some version of the same question. Should I take Social Security now, or am I leaving money on the table if I do not wait? Friends say take it early because you never know. A brother in law says wait until 70 no matter what. And your Social Security statement seems to show a different number for every birthday.

I am Bradley Stone, an independent agent here in Central Florida. There is no single right age for everyone, but there is a right way to think about it, and once you understand the moving parts, the choice gets a lot less stressful.

Your full retirement age is the starting point

Everything about Social Security timing is measured against your full retirement age. That is the age when you receive 100 percent of the benefit you earned over your working life. It depends on the year you were born:

• Born 1943 through 1954: full retirement age is 66
• Born 1955: 66 and 2 months
• Born 1956: 66 and 4 months
• Born 1957: 66 and 6 months
• Born 1958: 66 and 8 months
• Born 1959: 66 and 10 months
• Born 1960 or later: 67

One small quirk: if you were born on January 1, Social Security treats you as if you were born in the prior year.

You can start benefits as early as 62, and you can wait as late as 70. Every month you claim before your full retirement age lowers your check a little, and every month you wait past it raises your check a little. The key word is permanent. Whatever reduction or increase you lock in generally stays with you for life, with cost of living adjustments applied on top of it each year. For 2026, that annual adjustment was 2.8 percent.

What claiming at 62 really costs

If your full retirement age is 67 and you start at 62, your monthly benefit is reduced by 30 percent. You get 70 percent of your full amount, for life.

That sounds harsh, but it is not automatically a mistake. You collect five more years of checks than someone who waits until 67. Whether those extra checks outweigh the smaller amount afterward depends mostly on how long you live and what else you have to live on.

What waiting until 70 really earns

For anyone born in 1943 or later, each year you wait past full retirement age adds delayed retirement credits worth 8 percent a year. If your full retirement age is 67 and you wait until 70, your benefit becomes 124 percent of your full amount. The credits stop at 70, so there is no reason to wait any longer than that to file.

Put those two ends side by side and the gap is wide. For illustration, take a hypothetical person whose full benefit at 67 would be $2,000 a month:

• Claiming at 62: about $1,400 a month
• Claiming at 67: $2,000 a month
• Claiming at 70: about $2,480 a month

The same earnings record, and a difference of more than $1,000 a month depending only on when you file.

The breakeven question

People often ask me where the lines cross. Using that same hypothetical $2,000 example, and ignoring cost of living raises and taxes to keep the math simple, the rough picture looks like this:

• Waiting from 62 to 67 comes out ahead in total dollars once you live past roughly 78 and a half
• Waiting from 67 to 70 comes out ahead once you live past roughly 82 and a half
• Waiting from 62 all the way to 70 comes out ahead once you live past roughly 80 and a half

Breakeven math is useful, but nobody knows their own lifespan. And it treats Social Security like a bet you are trying to win, when it is better understood as insurance against living a long time. The larger check matters most when you are 88, your other savings have been spent down, and prices have kept climbing. Running short at 90 is a far worse outcome than having collected a bit less if you pass away at 75.

If you are married, you are deciding for two people

This is the part most people underestimate. Social Security has spousal benefits and survivor benefits, and the choice the higher earner makes can shape the income of the surviving spouse for decades.

A spouse can receive a benefit of up to half of the worker's full retirement age amount. That spousal benefit is reduced if the spouse claims before their own full retirement age. Unlike a worker's own benefit, spousal benefits do not grow past full retirement age, so a spouse gains nothing by waiting beyond that point to collect them.

There is also a filing rule to know about. If you were born on or after January 2, 1954, and you qualify for both your own retirement benefit and a spousal benefit, applying for one means you are treated as applying for both. Social Security calls this deemed filing. The old strategies of collecting only a spousal benefit while your own benefit grows are no longer available for most people retiring today.

Survivor benefits are where timing matters most. When one spouse passes away, the household does not keep both checks. The survivor keeps the larger of the two. A surviving spouse at full retirement age can receive up to 100 percent of the deceased spouse's benefit, including any delayed retirement credits earned by waiting. So when the higher earner delays, they are also raising the check their spouse may live on alone for many years. The reverse is true too: an early, smaller check can follow the survivor into widowhood.

Survivor benefits can begin as early as 60 at a reduced rate, and a survivor can start with one benefit and switch later, such as taking a survivor benefit first and switching to their own retirement benefit at 70 if that is higher. If you were divorced after a marriage of at least 10 years and have not remarried, you may be able to collect on your former spouse's record as well.

Still working? Know the earnings test

If you claim before your full retirement age and keep working, Social Security applies what it calls the retirement earnings test. For 2026:

• If you are under full retirement age for the entire year, $1 in benefits is withheld for every $2 you earn above $24,480
• In the calendar year you reach full retirement age, $1 is withheld for every $3 you earn above $65,160, counting only earnings before the month you reach full retirement age
• Starting the month you reach full retirement age, there is no earnings limit at all

For illustration, a hypothetical 63 year old who earns $34,480 from a job in 2026 is $10,000 over the limit, so $5,000 in benefits would be withheld.

A few points take the sting out of this. Only wages and net earnings from self employment count. Pensions, annuity payments, investment income, and interest do not. A special rule, usually for your first year of retirement, pays a full check for any whole month your earnings stay under a monthly limit. And withheld money is not simply lost. At full retirement age, Social Security recalculates your benefit to credit you for the months that were withheld.

Still, if you plan to keep working full time, claiming early often makes little sense, because much of the benefit may be withheld while the reduction is permanent.

Taxes on your benefits

Florida has no state income tax, which is one of the quieter advantages of retiring here. Your Social Security is not taxed by the state. It can still be taxed federally.

The IRS looks at what it calls combined income, which is your other income plus half of your Social Security benefits. If that total is above $25,000 for a single filer or $32,000 for a married couple filing jointly, part of your benefits becomes taxable. Above $34,000 for single filers or $44,000 for joint filers, up to 85 percent of your benefits can be taxable. Those thresholds are set in the law and are not adjusted for inflation, so more retirees cross them every year.

For tax years 2025 through 2028, there is also an additional deduction of $6,000 for each person age 65 or older, which phases out at higher incomes. It does not make Social Security tax free, but it can lower the overall bill. Review this with your tax preparer, because your claiming age and your 401k or IRA withdrawals work together.

When claiming early is the right answer

I would be doing you a disservice if I made this sound like everyone should wait. Waiting is the wrong answer in some very real situations:

• Your health is poor, or your family history suggests a shorter life expectancy
• You have stopped working and have no other way to cover your bills without running up debt
• You are single, with no spouse who would depend on a survivor benefit
• You are the lower earner in a marriage, and the higher earner is planning to wait
• Delaying would force you to drain savings so fast that it creates real anxiety or leaves you with no emergency cushion

A plan that only works on paper is not a good plan.

When waiting tends to make more sense

On the other side, delaying often deserves a closer look when you are in good health, when you are married and the higher earner, when longevity runs in your family, or when you have other resources that can cover your living costs for a few years without strain.

Bridging the gap to a later claim

Here is the practical problem with waiting. If you stop working at 63 and want to delay Social Security until 67 or 70, you still need money to live on for those years. People usually cover that gap with part time work, savings, a pension, or a 401k or IRA.

For some people, part of the answer is an annuity. A portion of savings can go into a contract that pays a set income for a defined number of years, or that starts lifetime income right away, covering the years before Social Security begins. The guaranteed income buys time for the larger Social Security check to grow. I explain how these contracts work, including surrender periods and the tradeoffs, in my guide to annuities in Florida.

This is not the right tool for everyone. If your savings are modest, tying a meaningful portion up in a contract can leave you short in an emergency. If you already have a pension large enough to bridge the gap, you may not need anything more. And any annuity guarantee depends on the financial strength of the insurance company behind it, which is one reason I compare a wide range of top rated carriers rather than one. You can see how I approach this on my annuities page.

If you are trying to figure out how your savings and Social Security fit together into a monthly number, my article on how much monthly income your savings will actually produce is a good next read.

A few other details worth knowing

Medicare eligibility at 65 does not wait for Social Security. If you are already receiving Social Security at 65, you are enrolled in Medicare automatically. If you are delaying, you generally need to sign up yourself, and signing up late for Part B can mean a lasting penalty. My Medicare page explains how I help with that.

If you claim and then change your mind, you can withdraw your application within 12 months, but only once in your lifetime, and you must repay everything you and your family received.

If you have a pension from a job that did not pay into Social Security, the Social Security Fairness Act ended the rules that used to reduce those benefits, so older estimates may be worth checking again.

Questions worth asking before you file

• What does my own Social Security statement show at 62, at full retirement age, and at 70?
• If I am married, what would the survivor receive under each claiming age?
• Will I still be earning wages before my full retirement age?
• What will I live on during the years I delay, and how much savings will that use?
• How would my claiming age change the taxes on my benefits and retirement account withdrawals?
• If I pass away first, would my spouse also lose a pension or other income?

That last question matters more than people expect. If a spouse would lose a large share of household income, read my guide on whether you still need life insurance in retirement.

Let us look at your numbers together

The right claiming age comes down to your health, your marriage, your other income, and what helps you sleep at night. I am glad to look at your Social Security estimates alongside your savings and any pension and talk through how the pieces fit. If an annuity has no place in your plan, I will tell you plainly. The conversation is free and there is no pressure.

Call 407.878.8277 or request a free quote, and we will start whenever you are ready.

This article is general education, not tax, legal, or investment advice. Your own situation deserves a personal review.