When Should You Take Social Security? 5 Timing Rules Retirees Get Wrong

Choosing the right age to claim Social Security is one of the most consequential financial decisions you will ever make — and most people get it wrong. For a married couple, the difference between an optimal strategy and a poor one can exceed $150,000 in lifetime household income. Yet the majority of Americans claim at 62 — the earliest age possible — often for the wrong reasons.

This post covers the five timing mistakes I see most often as a Registered Social Security Analyst (RSSA®), and what to do instead. These apply whether you’re approaching your 62nd birthday today or already knee-deep in planning for retirement in 2026.

Mistake #1: Claiming at 62 “Because You Can”

The most expensive Social Security mistake is also the most common: claiming at 62 simply because you’ve reached the minimum eligibility age.

Here’s what the numbers look like. For someone born after 1960, Full Retirement Age (FRA) is 67. If you claim at 62, your benefit is permanently reduced by 30% — not just until you reach FRA, but for the rest of your life. Every year you delay beyond FRA, your benefit grows an additional 8% per year through what Social Security calls Delayed Retirement Credits.

Benefit Comparison: Age 62 vs. 67 vs. 70

Assume your FRA monthly benefit is $2,500:

Claiming Age	Monthly Benefit	Annual Benefit	Over 20 Years
62	$1,750	$21,000	$420,000
67 (FRA)	$2,500	$30,000	$600,000
70	$3,100	$37,200	$744,000

The difference between claiming at 62 versus 70 is $1,350/month — every month, for life. Over a 20-year retirement, that’s a $324,000 gap on a single benefit.

Many pre-retirees claim early because they fear “missing out” on years of payments. But unless you have a serious health condition that substantially shortens your life expectancy, the math typically favors waiting — especially when you account for COLA increases (which compound on a larger base), survivor benefit implications for a spouse, and reduced taxation of a smaller provisional income.

The fix: Don’t claim based on a gut feeling or because a neighbor did it. Get a personalized analysis that models your break-even point, spousal coordination, and projected lifetime income at every claiming age before you pull the trigger.

Mistake #2: Ignoring Spousal Benefit Coordination

For married couples, Social Security claiming is a household strategy — not two independent decisions made in isolation. Ignoring spousal benefit coordination is the single most financially destructive mistake married retirees make.

Here’s why it matters:

• A spouse is entitled to up to 50% of the higher earner’s FRA benefit, regardless of their own work history.
• A surviving spouse can inherit 100% of the deceased spouse’s benefit — including any Delayed Retirement Credits earned by delaying past FRA.
• When one spouse claims early and the other dies first, the lower benefit is locked in permanently for the survivor.

A common costly scenario: Both spouses claim at 62. The higher earner (let’s say with a $2,500 FRA benefit) locks in $1,750/month. The lower earner claims their own small benefit. When the higher earner passes away at 78, the surviving spouse is stuck with $1,750/month — not the $3,100/month they would have received had the higher earner delayed to 70.

The fix: Coordinate claiming ages so the higher earner delays as long as possible, maximizing the survivor benefit. In many cases, the lower earner claims first to generate household cash flow while the higher earner delays. The specific strategy depends on both ages, health, earnings history, and retirement income needs — which is exactly what an RSSA® analysis models.

Mistake #3: Overlooking the Break-Even Age

You’ll often hear skeptics say, “Just claim early and invest the money.” The implication is that grabbing those early payments and putting them to work will outperform waiting.

This argument sounds plausible but almost always fails under scrutiny.

The break-even calculation asks: At what age does the cumulative income from waiting surpass the cumulative income from claiming early? For most people comparing age 62 to age 70, the break-even point falls somewhere between ages 78 and 82, depending on assumptions.

Here’s what the “invest it” argument misses:

• Most people don’t actually invest the early benefit — it gets absorbed into living expenses.
• Social Security has a COLA — the Cost-of-Living Adjustment applies to the full benefit, so a larger base at 70 generates larger COLA increases every single year.
• Social Security income is partially tax-advantaged compared to investment returns, especially for couples managing provisional income.
• The “investment return” required to beat delayed benefits is typically 5–7% after-tax — not a given in a balanced portfolio over a fixed horizon.
• Longevity risk — if you live to 85, 88, or 90, the delayed strategy wins decisively and by a very large margin.

The fix: Run the actual numbers — including COLA, taxation of benefits, and realistic investment return assumptions — before concluding that early claiming “pencils out.” A 10-minute back-of-napkin calculation almost never captures the full picture.

Mistake #4: Not Accounting for Longevity Risk

The average 65-year-old American today can expect to live to 84 for men and 86 for women. One in four people who reach age 65 will live past 90. For married couples, the probability that at least one spouse reaches 90 is over 50%.

Social Security is longevity insurance — a government-guaranteed, inflation-adjusted income stream that you cannot outlive. The longer you live, the more valuable a larger monthly benefit becomes.

Yet most people plan their Social Security timing around a “don’t live too long” assumption. They claim early partly out of fear they’ll die before the break-even age. This is the wrong frame.

Think of it this way: you don’t buy life insurance hoping to die young, and you shouldn’t claim Social Security early hoping to die young. The purpose of delaying Social Security is to insure against the risk of living a long life — a risk that is far more common than most people expect.

For clients with family histories of longevity or above-average health, the calculus for delaying Social Security to 70 is compelling. Delaying also has a compounding effect: each year of delay not only adds 8% in Delayed Retirement Credits but also builds a larger base for future COLA increases — a benefit that compounds over a 20–30 year retirement.

The fix: Plan for a retirement that may last 25–30 years. If your budget allows you to delay Social Security — whether through retirement savings, part-time income, or a bridge strategy using a fixed index annuity — delaying is typically the most cost-effective longevity insurance available.

Mistake #5: Falling Into the Earnings Test Trap

If you claim Social Security before your Full Retirement Age and you’re still working, you may be hit with the earnings test — one of the most misunderstood rules in the entire Social Security system.

Here’s how it works in 2026:

• If you claim before FRA and earn more than $22,320 per year, Social Security withholds $1 for every $2 you earn above that threshold.
• In the year you reach FRA, the threshold rises and the withholding drops to $1 for every $3 above a higher limit.
• Once you reach FRA, the earnings test disappears entirely — you can earn any amount with no withholding.

Example: You claim at 62, continue working part-time, and earn $40,000 in 2026. That’s $17,680 above the threshold. Social Security withholds $8,840 from your annual benefit — nearly 7 months of checks gone. And critically, the withheld benefits are not simply “saved” — they require an actuarial recalculation that won’t fully recover the losses in many scenarios, especially if you retire soon after.

There’s also a second trap: many workers don’t realize the earnings test applies until they’ve already claimed and received a repayment notice from Social Security. At that point, the damage is done.

The fix: If you plan to keep working — even part-time — after you claim Social Security before FRA, understand the earnings test thresholds before you claim. In many cases, the right answer is simply to delay claiming until you fully retire or until you reach Full Retirement Age.

The Right Answer Is Personal — But the Wrong Answer Is Usually the Same

The five mistakes above share a common thread: they’re made without a complete picture of the individual’s situation, health, household income needs, and lifetime income projections.

The “best age to claim Social Security in 2026” is not a single number. It depends on:

• Your health and family longevity history
• Your spouse’s age, earnings record, and health
• Your retirement income needs and other assets
• Your tax situation, including provisional income thresholds
• Your retirement timeline — when you stop working

A certified RSSA® (Registered Social Security Analyst) runs the full model: every claiming age for both spouses, every coordination strategy, lifetime income projections under multiple longevity scenarios, and the impact of each decision on taxes, Medicare premiums, and survivor benefits.

For most clients, getting this right is worth $50,000–$200,000 in additional lifetime income.

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Book Your Free Social Security Analysis

If you’re within 5 years of retirement — or already there — I offer a complimentary Social Security Analysis through my RSSA® consulting service. We’ll model your optimal claiming strategy, spousal coordination options, and the lifetime income difference across every realistic scenario.

This is not a sales call. It’s a straightforward analysis designed to give you the information you need to make one of the most important financial decisions of your life.

Book your free Social Security Analysis →

Or call: 503-832-8555

Rodney Cummings, RSSA® · OR License #18847712 · Legacy Wealth Services · Happy Valley, OR