About this document
Claim at 62 and the monthly check is smaller, but it starts sooner. Wait until 70 and the check is considerably larger, but you left eight years of payments on the table. Every household has to answer this question exactly once. The math is not hard, but the inputs are personal: health, spouse, other income, tax picture, cash flow need.
This guide walks the four questions that actually matter. It uses the 2026 COLA, the 2026 earnings test thresholds, and the current taxation brackets so the numbers are real, not illustrative.
Three worked scenarios run the math: early retiree with a pension, married couple with a gap in earnings histories, and a widow or widower navigating survivor benefits alongside their own.
What is inside
- How Social Security is actually calculated (PIA, bend points, 35 best years)
- Early, Full Retirement Age, and delayed claiming: what each costs and pays
- The four questions that drive the decision (health, spouse, other income, cash flow)
- The 2026 COLA and wage base
- The 2026 earnings test and when it applies
- Social Security taxation at the federal level and provisional income thresholds
- Spousal and survivor benefits, including the 2025 elimination of WEP and GPO
- Three worked scenarios, each with a specific recommendation and why
Closes with a one-page decision worksheet sized to the four questions above.
How to use it
Before 62. Even if you do not plan to claim early, read it. Knowing what the early number is anchors every decision about whether to bridge, work longer, or claim on time.
At 62, 66, and 70. The three decision points. Each one should trigger a fresh read of the relevant section and a conversation with us.
If you are married. Read the spousal and survivor sections together with your spouse. The claiming sequence between two people is almost always the higher-leverage decision than either claim alone.
Preview
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