One of the biggest Social Security decisions you’ll have to make is when to sign up for benefits. Many choose to apply as soon as they’re eligible, so they can get the most checks. But this isn’t always the wisest move.

Before you sign up, take some time to understand how your claiming age affects your checks, so you can optimize your benefits. We’ll dive into this below, and we’ll also look at how much the average benefit check is at every claiming age for reference.

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How your claiming age affects your Social Security benefits

The government first calculates your Social Security benefit at your full retirement age (FRA). This is 67 for most workers today, though some older adults have FRAs as young as 66. Then, it adjusts your benefit up or down depending on your claiming age.

Those who claim under their FRA get more checks, but each one is smaller. You lose 5/9 of 1% per month for up to 36 months of early claiming. Then, you lose 5/12 of 1% per month thereafter. If you sign up right away at 62 and have an FRA of 67, you could shrink your checks by 30%.

You also have the option to delay benefits past your FRA. They’ll grow by 2/3 of 1% per month until you qualify for your maximum benefit at 70. That’s up to 132% of your full benefit per month.

Put simply, the longer you wait to claim Social Security, the larger your monthly benefit will be. We see this reflected in the average monthly checks of Social Security beneficiaries at all possible claiming ages, as shown in the table below:

Data source: Social Security Administration. Average benefits are as of December 2023.

Apart from age 68, which has an average benefit slightly higher than the average benefit for age 69, we see that older beneficiaries tend to receive larger checks. To be clear, the table above gives information on beneficiaries’ current ages and average benefits, not the age at which they signed up. So it’s possible that some later claimers applied earlier.

However, the basic trend follows what we’d expect. But that doesn’t mean waiting until 70 to apply is the right move for everyone.

How to choose the best claiming age for you

There are two key factors you must weigh when deciding on the best Social Security claiming age for you. The first is your financial situation. Delaying benefits can net you larger checks, but you’ll have to cover your expenses on your own until you’re ready to sign up. For some people, that’s not feasible. In that case, you may have no choice but to sign up early, so you can avoid falling into debt.

If that’s not an issue for you, base your decision on your life expectancy. Those who don’t expect to live past their 70s generally benefit most from applying early, while those who expect to live into their 80s or beyond could get more by delaying benefits until 70.

If you’re married, talk over your Social Security claiming strategy with your spouse. Coordinating your plans could help you maximize your household benefits. For example, if both people earned similar amounts throughout their careers, it often makes sense for each of them to delay benefits as long as possible, barring health or financial issues.

But if one person significantly outearned the other, it’s more important for the higher earner to delay. The lower earner may decide to claim early to help the higher earner hold off for larger checks. Then, when the higher earner applies, the lower earner can switch to a spousal benefit if it’s worth more than what they’re currently receiving.

It’s wise to have a Social Security claiming age in mind even if you’re decades away from applying. You can always change this down the road, but having a strategy can help you estimate how much you’ll get from the program and how much of your retirement expenses you’ll need to cover on your own.

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