When should you start Social Security? Claiming strategies ranked for your situation — with timing, the "when" is the whole decision.
Sometime in your early sixties, Social Security starts asking a question it will only let you answer once: take your benefit now, or wait while each year of patience makes every future check permanently bigger. There’s no universally right age — it depends on your health, your work plans, your other savings, and, if you’re married, on a survivor decision hiding inside your own — which is what your answers below sort out.
How the benefit works — Your work record sets a base amount, and your claiming age scales it: filing early locks in a permanently smaller check, waiting past full retirement age locks in a permanently larger one. The checks rise with inflation and last exactly as long as you do — less like a savings account, more like insurance against a long life.
The real trade — Claiming early means more years of smaller checks; delaying means fewer years of larger ones, funded in the meantime by working longer or spending savings. Working while collecting before full retirement age can temporarily withhold part of the benefit, and for couples the higher earner’s choice quietly sets the check the survivor will live on.
Why it isn’t obvious — The break-even arithmetic turns on how long you’ll live, which nobody knows — the choice that wins if you pass away early is the one that loses if you live long. Health, family longevity, taxes, and whether the money is needed now rarely all point the same way.
What your answers change — Good health and longevity in the family pull toward waiting; a health concern, no other income to bridge the gap, or simply needing the money pull toward filing; being married adds the survivor layer on top. That’s why this page asks instead of tells.
All 7 options. Add anything above to rank them for you.
Starting Social Security at the earliest retirement age — a permanently reduced check whose exact reduction depends on your birth date and filing month.
Start income at first eligibility · Age 62 — the earliest allowed · Confirm your statement estimate and any earnings test · Age 62 versus your FRA statement estimate
Starting at your birth-date-specific full retirement age — the unreduced benefit, with no retirement earnings test on work income.
Lock in the unreduced benefit · Your FRA — age 67 if born in 1960 or later · Confirm the exact FRA month for your birth date · Your FRA month versus age 70
Waiting past full retirement age earns delayed credits each month through age 70, when you lock in your largest retirement-benefit amount.
Lock in the largest later benefit · Age 70 — after maximum delayed credits · Fund the wait and keep Medicare timing separate · Age 70 benefit versus the bridge required
Living on planned retirement-account withdrawals while the benefit grows — a route that can improve taxes or future RMD exposure when the account mix and withdrawal schedule support it.
Fund the wait to the largest benefit · Age ~70 — savings pay the meantime · Write the bridge, tax, and Medicare plan first · Claiming sooner versus the after-tax bridge schedule
The lower earner claims early for income now while the higher earner delays — maximizing the survivor check one of you will live on.
Balance income now with survivor value · Two dates — one early, one at 70 · Compare two eligible records and two filing dates · Both records under both proposed start dates
Survivor benefits and your own retirement benefit are separate — start one early, then switch to the larger one later.
Sequence two separate benefits · Survivor benefits as early as 60 · Confirm survivor eligibility and compare both estimates · Survivor-first versus own-record-first
After a marriage of 10+ years, you may qualify for up to half of your ex’s full-retirement-age amount without reducing their benefit.
Check an eligible ex-spouse record · From 62, if the 10-year test passes · 10+ year marriage plus current SSA eligibility · Your own record versus the eligible ex-spouse amount
Everything you add to your profile is evidence: each pick adds weight toward the strategies it genuinely fits — your #1 goal counts most, #2 half, #3 a third — and hard lines hide strategies entirely, with the reason stated.
Household rules still gate what applies: couple coordination needs a current marriage, sequencing needs a survivor benefit, the ex-spouse check needs a 10+ year marriage that ended in divorce, and the savings-bridge strategy needs savings to draw on.
The ranking is structural — your exact dollar amounts live on your ssa.gov statement, and that’s where any final decision should be checked.
Scores are computed instantly in your browser. Your answers are saved to your account only if you sign in; otherwise they stay on this device.
Educational only — not financial advice. Claiming is largely irreversible after 12 months; verify your numbers at ssa.gov first. Scores are computed in your browser; answers are saved to your account only if you sign in.