S
Sam's Economics

Claim at 62, 67 or 70?

See each monthly check, what your household collects over a lifetime, the break-even ages, and the one number most couples never check: the survivor check the longer-living spouse keeps.

Not financial advice. A simplified, illustrative model in today's dollars (yearly cost-of-living raises are assumed to keep each check's real value). It ignores taxes, the earnings test, investment of early checks, divorced-spouse and child benefits, and your own health. Use it to compare choices, not to predict your future. Check your real benefit on your Social Security or My Service Canada statement and talk to a fee-only advisor before you file.

Your numbers

Defaults are Ray and Diane from the video. Change anything.

Canada mode uses CPP rules for each person's own pension: 0.6% less for every month before 65, 0.7% more for every month after, from 60 to 70. Enter the pension at 65 from your My Service Canada statement. The CPP survivor pension follows different rules and is not modeled here, so the survivor results are hidden.

Higher earner (Ray)

$500$5,200
5570
6270
63105

Spouse (Diane)

$0$5,200
5570
6270
63105
THE CHECK THE SURVIVOR LIVES ON
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Higher earner's check
—
Spouse's check
—
Household lifetime total, your choice
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Break-even ages (higher earner, alone)
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Lifetime total by claiming plan

Household lifetime total by claiming plan
PlanMonthly at startLifetime totalSurvivor check

Test it on different lives

Household lifetime totals for each plan. Nobody knows their lifespan, so look for the plan that wins big when the money is needed and loses small when it isn't. The best plan in each row is in blue.

Verdict

Before you file

  • 1Find each person's full benefit on the official statement (ssa.gov/myaccount, or My Service Canada).
  • 2If you're married, treat the higher earner's claiming age as the size of the survivor check.
  • 3Ask "how long will the last one of us live?", not "how long will I live?"
  • 4Plan how you'll pay the bills during the bridge years if the higher earner waits.
  • 5Run at least three lives: both die early, both live long, one long and one short.
  • 6Bring the numbers to a fee-only advisor or tax professional before you file.

Get the claiming checklist, a blank worksheet and the questions to bring to your advisor.

Download the PDF guide

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Illustrative estimate only, not financial, tax or legal advice. United States: full retirement age 67 (born 1960 or later); claiming early cuts the benefit by 5/9 of 1% a month for the first 36 months and 5/12 of 1% after that; waiting past 67 adds 2/3 of 1% a month up to 70. A spousal top-up is added when the lower earner's own benefit is under half of the higher earner's full benefit, payable once both have filed. When a spouse dies, the survivor keeps the larger of their own check and the survivor benefit: the deceased's actual check, at least 82.5% of the deceased's full benefit if they filed early, reduced if the survivor is under 67 (to 71.5% at 60). A spouse who dies before filing passes on their full benefit plus any delay credits earned by that age. Both spouses are assumed to file at the ages chosen, and a survivor who hasn't filed yet is assumed to take the survivor benefit right away. Canada: CPP pension at 65, minus 0.6% a month before 65 and plus 0.7% a month after, from 60 to 70; the survivor pension, OAS and GIS are not modeled. All amounts are in today's dollars with no taxes, no discounting and no investment of early checks. Rules change; confirm current figures with the Social Security Administration or Service Canada.