Claiming strategy

When should you claim Social Security?

Delaying a claim yields a higher benefit for life. That part is simple. What makes the decision hard is everything else that moves when you change the date — a spouse’s benefit, your tax bracket, IRMAA surcharges, required distributions, and what the household income looks like after one of you dies.

There is no single best answer, only a range of bad, middling and great timing. The difference between the worst and best choice is often six figures over a retirement.

What actually goes into the decision

  • Are you single or married?
  • When is your Full Retirement Age?
  • When is your spouse’s Full Retirement Age?
  • When do you want to retire?
  • What are your benefit amounts at different ages?
  • How old are you?
  • What is the state of your health?
  • What is your expected life span?
  • How much is your other retirement income?
  • Are you, or do you plan to be, employed?
  • Will you be subject to IRMAA?
  • When and how much are your Required Minimum Distributions?
  • What does retirement look like when one spouse dies?

How we work it out

  1. Find your expected benefit

    The easiest way is to create an account at ssa.gov and look at your statement. Do the same for a spouse.

  2. Add the considerations

    Every factor listed above gets applied to your actual situation, not a generic case.

  3. Calculate

    We model it in software rather than guessing. You see the range of outcomes, not a single recommended date with no reasoning behind it.

  4. Integrate

    The claiming date is then fitted into the rest of the income plan — withdrawal order, tax brackets, Medicare premiums — because changing one pulls on all the others.

Want to see the numbers first?

Try the Social Security Timing calculator to get a feel for how the date moves the benefit, then come back for the full picture.

Get a written claiming age for each spouse

Request a claiming analysis

Goat Planning is not compensated for this service. We do it because a retirement income plan cannot be built without knowing the claiming date, and nobody else is going to work it out for you.

You will need your Social Security statement of estimated benefits. If you do not have it, create an account at ssa.gov first and note your benefit at Full Retirement Age.

    These are the inputs needed to model your claiming options. Nothing here is a commitment, and we never need your Social Security number.

    Who we are planning for

    Birth dates

    Full Retirement Age benefit

    This is the monthly amount shown on your Social Security statement at full retirement age. You can pull it from your account at ssa.gov.

    When you want to claim

    Do you want to claim on the same date, even if you are different ages?

    Work after claiming

    Earnings before full retirement age can temporarily reduce a benefit. That is one of the things the model accounts for.

    Where to send the results

    Goat Planning is not connected with or endorsed by the United States government or the Social Security Administration. This page is general education, not individualized advice, and is not a recommendation to claim at any particular age. Jeff Batson is a Registered Financial Consultant® licensed in life, health, annuities and Medicare; he is not an attorney, CPA, or securities-licensed advisor, and nothing here is legal, tax, or investment advice.