Social Security decisions lock in outcomes for decades. Workers approaching retirement face a single choice with outsized financial consequences: when to claim benefits.
Filing at 62 versus waiting until 70 reshapes your entire retirement income picture. Claim early and you receive smaller monthly checks for a longer stretch. Delay and monthly payments jump substantially. A worker with a full retirement age of 67 who waits until 70 gains roughly 24% higher monthly benefits. Someone claiming at 62 accepts roughly 30% smaller payments.
The review Money Magazine recommends involves three core steps. First, establish your full retirement age. The Social Security Administration sets this between 66 and 67 for most current workers, depending on birth year. Second, run the math on your household's longevity. If you expect to live into your 80s or 90s, delayed claiming typically produces more lifetime income. If serious health conditions suggest a shorter lifespan, early claiming makes sense.
Third, factor in household dynamics. Married couples should consider spousal and survivor benefits. A lower-earning spouse may qualify for spousal payments worth up to 50% of the higher-earning spouse's benefit. Survivor benefits protect your family if you die before collecting all your benefits. These payouts shift the calculus substantially.
The online Social Security benefits calculator at ssa.gov lets you model different claiming ages. It shows projected monthly payments and lifetime totals. This free tool removes guesswork from the equation.
Waiting from 62 to 67 costs you five years of payments but substantially increases what you get each month. For a median earner, the breakeven point sits around age 80. After that, delaying produces more cumulative income. For higher earners, that breakeven shifts later.
This review takes a few hours but determines whether you'll have $50,000 more or less