Is It Better to Collect Social Security at 62, 66, or 70? A Statistical Study Weighs In and Provides an Answer. | The Motley Fool

In April, approximately 50.9 million retired-worker beneficiaries took home an average Social Security check of $1,915.26. This might not be a large amount of money, but Social Security income has proved vital to the financial well-being of retirees for decades.

For 23 years, national pollster Gallup has surveyed retirees to gauge their reliance on the income they receive from America’s top retirement program. No fewer than 80% of respondents in any given year noted that it was a “major” or “minor” income source. In 2024, only 11% of retirees said that they didn’t need their Social Security payout to make ends meet.

Getting as much as possible out of Social Security will be critical for future beneficiaries. But in order to maximize Social Security benefits, future retirees first need to understand the details of how their payout is calculated.

Furthermore, they’ll need to grasp just how important claiming age can be. It can make all the difference in determining whether an early claim (age 62), middle-ground approach (age 66), or the waiting game (age 70) is the smartest move.

Four components are used to calculate your monthly Social Security check

Without getting into the nitty-gritty of formulas (because who wants to do math while they’re reading, right?), the Social Security Administration (SSA) leans on four components to calculate how much you’ll be paid each month by America’s leading retirement program. These four “ingredients” are:

The first two factors, your work and earnings history, are inseparable. When calculating your monthly benefit, the SSA will account for your 35 highest-earning, inflation-adjusted years. This calculation is based on earned income, which includes wages and salary, but removes investment income.

Additionally, the SSA penalizes beneficiaries who fail to work at least 35 years. For every year less than 35 years worked, the SSA will average a $0 into your monthly benefit calculation.

The third variable, your full retirement age, represents the age you’re eligible to receive 100% of your retirement benefit. Since it’s determined by birth year, it’s the only component you have no control over.

The fourth detail the SSA uses to calculate your monthly Social Security check, and the one I’ve already hinted is most important, is your claiming age. Though eligible retired workers can start collecting benefits at age 62, the Social Security program provides a monetary incentive to those willing to wait. For every year a worker waits to collect their payout, beginning at age 62 and continuing until age 70, their benefit can grow by as much as 8%. You can see this dynamic play out in the table below.

Data source: Social Security Administration.

Collecting benefits at 62, 66, and 70 comes with very clear pros and cons

Within the traditional claiming-age range, which spans from 62 through 70, every age has well-defined advantages and drawbacks. However, ages 62, 66, and 70 are liable to remain popular, or gain significantly in popularity in the coming years. Let’s take a closer look at the pros and cons retirees might expect when choosing to collect benefits at these respective ages.

Age 62: In 2022, 62 was the most popular age for retired workers to begin receiving their Social Security check. The reason is pretty simple: Retirees don’t want to wait to get their hands on their benefit.

Another reason the earliest possible claiming age has remained popular is because the Old-Age and Survivor Insurance Trust Fund (OASI), which is responsible for paying benefits to retired workers and survivor beneficiaries, is forecast to deplete its asset reserves by 2033. If the OASI’s asset reserves are exhausted, sweeping benefit cuts of up to 21% may follow. Early claimants may be attempting to front-run any potential reduction in benefits.

However, an age 62 claim will result in a permanent monthly payout reduction of 25% to 30%, depending on your birth year. Early filers can also be exposed to the retirement earnings test, which allows the SSA to withhold some or all of your benefit, depending on your income.

Age 66: Interestingly enough, 66 was the second most popular claiming age in 2022. The allure of the middle-ground approach is that it minimizes or eliminates any monthly payout reduction, yet still allows retirees to access their payout while they’re young enough to enjoy it.

But there’s a potential downside to starting your benefits in the middle of the traditional claiming age range. If you live well into your 80s, you’ll have left a significant amount of Social Security income on the proverbial table.

Age 70: The latest age to collect, within the traditional claiming age, has been gaining in popularity over time. Though you’ll have to wait eight years, post initial eligibility, to get your hands on your benefit with an age 70 claim, you’ll receive the highest possible monthly payout — between 24% and 32% above what you’d have taken home each month at full retirement age, depending on your birth year.

I’ll also add that the retirement earnings test stops being applicable once you hit full retirement age. Thus, age 70 claimants don’t have to worry about the SSA withholding any of their retired-worker benefit.

The disadvantage of an age 70 claim is the possibility that you won’t live long enough to maximize your lifetime benefit collection.

Image source: Getty Images.

Waiting usually has its rewards

With a broader understanding of what each claiming age brings to the table, let’s get back to the most important question of all: Is it better to collect Social Security at 62, 66, or 70?

The genuine answer is that we don’t concretely know. Since none of us knows ahead of time when we’re going to “depart,” there’s always going to be some degree of educated guesswork involved in our claiming process. We each walk a unique path, which means we’ll need to take into account the factors that matter to us, such as financial needs, access to retirement plans, marital status, taxation, and, of course, personal health.

Keeping this in mind, researchers at United Income conducted a broad-based statistical study five years ago on Social Security claiming ages using data culled from the University of Michigan’s Health and Retirement Study. Researchers aimed to determine which claiming ages optimized lifetime benefit collection (note the emphasis I’ve placed on “lifetime”).

United Income examined the claims of 20,000 retired workers and discovered that only 4% had made a choice that ultimately maximized what they had received from Social Security. This isn’t all that surprising, given the unknowns associated with taking Social Security benefits.

What did come as a surprise was the variance between actual and optimal claiming ages. Whereas 79% of the 20,000 retired workers studied began collecting their Social Security benefit from ages 62 through 64, only 8% of optimal claims were found in this age range.

On the other hand, patience had its rewards. Some 57% of retired workers examined would have optimized their Social Security income had they first collected their payout at age 70. For what it’s worth, age 66 was right in the middle in terms of Social Security income optimization (ahead of ages 62 through 65, but trailing ages 67 through 70).

This doesn’t mean there aren’t scenarios where an earlier claim makes sense. For instance, a lower-earning spouse might choose to collect their Social Security benefit early to allow the payout of the household’s income breadwinner to grow over time. Likewise, a person who has one or more chronic health conditions that can potentially shorten their lifespan may benefit from collecting their payout early.

But when the lens is widened and the collective group of previous retired workers is examined as a whole, patience has proved to be a statistically smarter choice, more often than not. It’s something for future generations of retirees to keep in mind when they make this all-important decision.