1 · Claiming age: 62 vs 67 vs 70
Enter your monthly benefit at full retirement age (your PIA — the amount on your Social Security statement for age 67). This tool fixes full retirement age at 67, which applies to everyone born in 1960 or later.
| If you claim at | Monthly benefit | Total received by age 80 | Total received by age 85 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62 (70% of PIA) | — | — | — |
| 67 (100% of PIA) | — | — | — |
| 70 (124% of PIA) | — | — | — |
Break-even ages (the age at which the later claim's bigger checks repay the checks you skipped): claiming at 67 catches up with 62 at about age 78 years 8 months; claiming at 70 catches up with 62 at about age 80 years 4 months, and with 67 at about age 82 years 6 months. Live past a break-even and the later claim has paid you more in total.
Totals are simple, undiscounted sums and ignore cost-of-living adjustments — COLA percentage raises apply equally to all three claiming ages, so they lift every column together and do not change which claim wins. Taxes, Medicare premiums and spousal benefits are not included. The full walk-through is in our guide: Social Security at 62 vs 67 vs 70: the break-even math.
2 · The survivor switch: which order pays more?
Survivor benefits are the exception to the usual claiming rules: you may take a survivor benefit first and switch to your own later, or the reverse — the two benefits grow on separate clocks. A survivor benefit taken at 60 pays 71.5% of your late spouse's PIA; at survivor full retirement age (67, born 1962 or later) it pays 100%. Your own benefit delayed to 70 pays 124% of your own PIA.
Cap rule: if your spouse claimed their own benefit early, your survivor amount is generally the higher of what they were actually receiving or 82.5% of their PIA. This tool uses the PIA-based figures below — treat the results as estimates, not SSA's exact computation.
| Monthly income at age… | 60 | 62 | 67 | 70 | Total received by 85 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plan A — survivor at 60, switch to your own at 70 | — | — | — | — | — |
| Plan B — your own at 62, switch to survivor at 67 | — | — | — | — | — |
Plan A pays the survivor amount from 60 to 69, then from 70 pays whichever is larger — your own benefit at 124%, or the survivor amount. Plan B pays nothing at 60–61 (your own benefit cannot start before 62), pays your own reduced benefit at 62–66, then the full survivor amount from 67. Both plans can be changed by your own situation — a spouse who claimed early, earnings while working, and taxes all move the answer. The full guide, with worked examples, is here: The Survivor Switch: take the widow(er) benefit at 60, your own at 70 (or the reverse).
Estimate — SSA computes exact amounts. Checked against SSA rules (ssa.gov) · October 2026 — The Retirement Desk. Education, not advice.
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