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Should you claim Social Security at 62, full retirement age or 70? Compare monthly benefits, lifetime totals and break-even ages.
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Your benefit at full retirement age (from your Social Security statement) is reduced for each month you claim before full retirement age, or raised by delayed retirement credits for each month you wait after it, up to 70. Lifetime totals add the monthly benefit from the claiming age to the age you enter, with an optional yearly cost-of-living raise from 62. The break-even age is when the total from a later claim first catches up with claiming at 62.
Social Security claiming-age rules
Full retirement age is 66 for people born 1943-1954, rising 2 months a year to 67 for 1960 and later. Claiming early cuts the benefit 5/9 of 1% a month for up to 36 months and 5/12 of 1% a month beyond (30% at 62 when full retirement age is 67); each month waited past it adds 2/3 of 1% (8% a year) until 70.
Source: Social Security Administration: benefit reduction for early retirement, and delayed retirement credits · checked October 15, 2026
Estimates for planning, not professional advice. What changed and when →
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