Estimate Social Security benefits at age 62, full retirement age, and 70 with spousal benefits and break-even analysis.
Two people with identical work records can receive monthly checks that differ by more than 75 percent: about $1,400 at age 62 versus $2,480 at 70 for a full retirement age of 67. This tool turns an earnings history or a primary insurance amount into the benefit at 62, full retirement age, and 70, adds the spousal share, and computes the break-even age where the larger delayed check overtakes the early claimant's head start. Most people misjudge the trade: the break-even lands near age 80, so the early claim stays ahead of the game for over a decade.
A concrete input and expected output from the current implementation.
Input
Born 1960 (full retirement age 67). Primary insurance amount (benefit at full retirement age): $2,000. Compare claiming at 62, 67, and 70. Spouse born 1962, no work record.
Expected output
Age 62: $1,400 a month (70 percent of the primary insurance amount - claimed 60 months early). Age 67: $2,000. Age 70: $2,480 (124 percent - 36 months of delayed credits). Break-even between the 62 and 70 claims: about 80 years 5 months. Spousal benefit: $1,000 at the spouse's full retirement age, $650 if claimed at 62.
Claiming 60 months early cuts the benefit by 36 x 5/9 percent plus 24 x 5/12 percent = 30 percent; each of the 36 months of delay adds 2/3 of 1 percent, for 24 percent at 70. The 62-claimant banks 96 x $1,400 = $134,400 before the 70-claimant receives anything, and the $1,080 monthly gap recovers that in about 124 months, roughly 10.4 years. Figures are in today's dollars before cost-of-living adjustments.
The estimator builds an Average Indexed Monthly Earnings from the highest 35 indexed years of earnings, applies the bend-point formula to get the primary insurance amount, then adjusts for claiming age: 5/9 of 1 percent per month for the first 36 months before full retirement age, 5/12 of 1 percent beyond that, and 2/3 of 1 percent per month of delay up to age 70, with cost-of-living adjustments applied to the result.
A spouse receives the larger of their own benefit and a spousal benefit of up to 50 percent of the worker's primary insurance amount, reduced by 25/36 of 1 percent per month for the first 36 months before the spouse's full retirement age and 5/12 of 1 percent beyond. A break-even routine totals cumulative payments at each claiming age and reports the age where the later claim's higher checks catch the earlier claim's head start.
No. The reduction is permanent and applies for life, and cost-of-living adjustments compound on the reduced base, so the dollar gap tends to widen rather than close. The one exception is the earnings test: months withheld because you kept working are credited back at full retirement age, which raises the check modestly.
Not because of your claim. The spousal benefit is computed from your primary insurance amount, not from your reduced early check, so your timing does not shrink it. The spouse's own claiming age does reduce their share, and they generally cannot collect spousal benefits until you have filed for yours.
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