When Should I Start Social Security?

"When should I start Social Security?" comes up often with our clients, and for good reason—it's one of the few retirement decisions that's largely irreversible. Once you lock in a claiming age (outside a narrow window to withdraw an application), you live with that monthly benefit for the rest of your life.

There's a lot of literature focused on breakeven ages, spousal coordination, and tax optimization, and those all matter. But in practice, the decision usually comes down to something simpler and more personal: health.

The Basic Mechanics

Full Retirement Age (FRA) is 66–67, depending on your birth year.

Claim earlier than your FRA, and your benefit is permanently reduced—as much as 30% lower if you claim at age 62. Delay past your FRA, and you earn delayed retirement credits worth about 8% per year, up to age 70, when the increase stops.

So the range runs from roughly 70% of your full benefit at age 62 to about 124–132% at age 70, depending on your FRA.

The breakeven age—the point at which cumulative lifetime benefits from delaying catch up to and surpass what you'd have collected by claiming early—typically falls in the early to mid-80s.

Why Health Is the Real Driver

The breakeven calculation assumes you'll live long enough to reach it. Nobody knows their own life expectancy with precision, but people often have a much better sense of their own health trajectory than a generic actuarial table does.

Family History and Current Health Favor Delaying When:

• You have no major chronic conditions.
• Your family has a history of longevity.
• You maintain an active lifestyle.
• You're still working and don't need the income yet.
• A spouse (especially a lower-earning spouse) would benefit from a higher survivor benefit locked in by the higher earner delaying benefits.

Current Health Favors Claiming Early When:

• You have a serious diagnosis or chronic condition with a life expectancy meaningfully below average.
• You find yourself saying, in some form, "I don't expect to see 80." That instinct is worth taking seriously during the planning conversation, not politely working around.
• You're in physically demanding work that's becoming harder to sustain, and continuing to work simply to delay claiming isn't a realistic option.

Ultimately, this is a question of which risk you're trying to protect against: outliving your money or not living long enough to use it.

Delaying Social Security is essentially longevity insurance—it pays off if you live a long time and provides little benefit if you don't.

Where the Decision Gets More Complicated Than "Just Health"

Spousal and Survivor Benefits

For married couples, this isn't really two separate decisions—it's a household decision.

The surviving spouse (often the lower earner, since women statistically live longer and frequently have smaller benefits) inherits the higher of the two Social Security benefits—not both.

That means the higher earner's claiming age often has the greatest impact on the household's long-term financial security, even if that spouse has health concerns. A couple in which the higher earner has health issues but the lower earner is healthy may still benefit from delaying the higher earner's claim if it's financially feasible. The delayed benefit becomes the survivor benefit that the healthier spouse may collect for many years.

Divorced Spouse Benefits

Clients who were married for 10 years or more and are currently unmarried may be eligible to claim benefits based on an ex-spouse's earnings record, sometimes without the ex-spouse's knowledge or involvement, and in some cases to the claimant's financial advantage.

Taxation of Benefits

Up to 85% of Social Security benefits may be taxable, depending on your combined income (adjusted gross income, plus nontaxable interest, plus one-half of your Social Security benefits).

Clients in the accumulation phase who are also completing Roth conversions or taking significant IRA distributions before claiming benefits should model how that income will affect future Social Security taxation.

This is one reason the low-income years before claiming Social Security—the same period we've discussed as an opportunity for Roth conversions—can also be an ideal time to delay benefits.

Other Income Needs

Health isn't the only consideration. A client without sufficient assets or income to bridge the gap between retirement and age 70 may simply need to claim earlier, regardless of the theoretical optimum.

The "right" answer on paper isn't very helpful if it isn't financially practical.

The Bottom Line

The numbers matter, and it's worth running breakeven analyses and tax projections for each client's situation. But those calculations are inputs into a decision that's ultimately about matching a financial hedge to a health reality that the client often already understands.

The clients who regret their claiming decision most are rarely the ones who carefully considered the numbers and chose a reasonable claiming age. They're usually the ones who let a generic average dictate a deeply personal decision.

This post is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute individualized financial, tax, or legal advice.

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