You'll likely maximize your lifetime Social Security retirement benefits if you wait until 70, but not everyone can (or wants to) wait that long to start collecting checks from the government.
A 2019 study from United Income found that 57% of retirees would optimize their Social Security benefits by waiting to claim until age 70. In this case, "optimize" simply means retirees receive the highest possible amount of money from the program over their lifetime.
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And waiting until age 70 will make sense for a lot of people. Delaying beyond your full retirement age earns you delayed retirement credits. Your benefit increases by 8 percentage points for each year you delay. Moreover, delaying until 70 is the best way to protect your retirement against living longer than expected and to minimize future regret.
But not everyone is in a position to wait that long to start collecting their retirement benefits. And if that's the case, you'll be glad to hear the next-best age isn't 69 or even 68.
The next-best age to claim your Social Security benefits is...
Age 67.
Over 10% of retirees in United Income's study would have maximized their lifetime retirement benefits by claiming Social Security at age 67. The full retirement age for anyone born in 1960 or later is 67. At that age, you're eligible to receive your primary insurance amount with no adjustments.
There are a few extra benefits for retirees waiting until at least 67 to claim their retirement benefit.
A 43% increase in your benefit
Anyone born in 1960 or later can receive 43% more in their monthly Social Security checks by delaying claiming their benefits until they reach age 67 (instead of 62).
As most readers will know, you can claim your primary Social Security retirement benefit at any age between 62 and 70. Claiming as soon as you can, however, comes with a significant reduction in your monthly check. In fact, those claiming at 62 will receive just 70% of their primary insurance amount if their full retirement age is 67. Put another way, you'll see checks 43% higher if you claim at 67 versus 62.
The longer you wait, the bigger your benefits check will be. Of course, you'll forego months or years of not receiving checks. By and large, though, most retirees make up the difference over time. Just 6.5% of retirees claiming at age 62 or 63 made an optimal choice, according to United Income's study.
Of course, if you want the biggest monthly check possible, you'll have to wait until age 70, when you'll receive 124% of your primary insurance amount. But 67 is a solid compromise between taking it ASAP and delaying it as long as possible.
Maximizing the spousal benefit
If you're eligible for a spousal benefit, it might not make any sense at all to delay beyond age 67.
The spousal benefit is worth up to 50% of your spouse's primary insurance amount, the amount they'd receive at full retirement age. If that amount is higher than the amount you'd be eligible for at 70, or even just a few dollars shy of it, it makes more sense to claim your benefit at age 67.
This could be the case for any number of reasons. If one spouse had a short career, there'll be a huge discrepancy in how much they're eligible for from Social Security. Or if one spouse was simply a high earner throughout their career and the other had a more common wage, it might make sense. Be sure to take a look at the math to figure it out.
It's important to note that you can't claim a spousal benefit until that spouse has claimed their own benefit. So, if your partner hasn't claimed Social Security yet, you're ineligible to receive spousal benefits. That doesn't mean it won't make sense to claim at age 67 based on your own work history. It just means you might have to wait for the higher spousal benefit.
Maximizing the survivor benefit
The survivor benefit allows a surviving spouse to claim 100% of the deceased's Social Security benefit, including any delayed retirement credits the deceased spouse received.
That means delaying until age 70 can increase the survivor benefit for your spouse if you pass away early. Conversely, if you claim before full retirement age, you'll decrease the amount your widow or widower will receive after you pass away.
That's an important consideration for the high earner of the family. If you want to ensure your spouse has enough to live on in the case of your passing away, you might want to delay as late as age 70.
Waiting until 70 is a great choice for most, but it's not going to be the best option for everyone. If you can't wait that long, consider waiting until 67 to get nearly as much as you can out of the program for both yourself and your spouse.
