Your Social Security Questions Answered

Selecting the right strategy will pay off for years to come.

- LISA GERSTNER

As you approach retirement, figuring out when and how to claim Social Security benefits looms as one of the most important tasks on your to-do list. Choosing the right time and best strategy could significantly boost your income—and the stakes are particularly high for couples. Judging by the amount of mail we get on this topic, many retirees and pre-retirees are grappling with the complexity of their choices. Here we’ve answered several common reader questions. The best decisions for you depend on your own circumstances, but knowing the basics will help you choose the right options.

I’m deciding at what age I’ll claim Social Security benefits. How does my life expectancy factor in?

First, the basics: You can start getting benefits as early as age 62, but you’ll receive up to 30% less in each check than if you wait until your full retirement age, which is 66 for those born from 1943 to 1954 and gradually rises to 67 for those born in 1960 or later. For each year after your full retirement age that you wait to start benefits until the maximum age of 70, you’ll get an 8% boost in delayed retirement credits.

Social Security actuaries aim to set payouts so that if you die at the time your life expectancy projects, you’ll receive about the same total amount of benefits no matter when you start claiming them. If you are single and have never been married, spousal and survivor benefits aren’t a concern, so your decision about when to claim hinges on how long you think you’ll live. If you can afford to postpone taking benefits and are deciding whether to hold out to age 70, a key question is whether you expect to live past 80. Research shows that at about age 80, the cumulative amount you’ve received in benefits is approximately the same whether you started benefits at age 62, 70 or somewhere in between.