Methodology

How the model works, and where it stops.

Every number in your report traces back to a published SSA rule and a number you gave us. Here is the whole calculation, in the open.

1. Your full retirement age comes from your birth year

The Social Security Administration sets a full retirement age (FRA) based on the year you were born. For anyone born in 1960 or later, FRA is 67. For birth years from 1955 to 1959 it rises in two-month steps from 66 and 2 months up to 66 and 10 months. We look your birth year up against that schedule and use the exact FRA, because every reduction and credit below is measured from it.

2. Claiming early cuts the check, permanently

If you claim before your full retirement age, the SSA applies a permanent reduction. For the first 36 months before FRA, the check is reduced by 5/9 of one percent per month. For any months beyond 36, the reduction is 5/12 of one percent per month. With an FRA of 67, claiming at the earliest month, 62, produces the maximum reduction of 30 percent, and that lower amount is what you receive for the rest of your life.

3. Waiting past FRA earns delayed-retirement credits

If you delay claiming past your full retirement age, the SSA adds delayed-retirement credits of 8 percent per year, accrued monthly, up to age 70. There is no benefit to waiting past 70, so the model stops there. With an FRA of 67, waiting until 70 raises the check by 24 percent above the FRA amount.

Worked example. A $2,000 FRA benefit becomes about $1,400 at age 62 (a 30 percent cut) and about $2,480 at age 70 (a 24 percent increase). That is a spread of more than $1,000 a month, for the same worker, from timing alone.

4. We total the lifetime payout under your longevity view

A bigger monthly check is only better if you collect it for long enough to make up for the years you waited. So the model does not just compare monthly amounts, it totals the expected lifetime benefit at each claiming age through an assumed end age:

  • Below average longevity models benefits through the earlier end of a typical range.
  • Average longevity models to roughly the SSA period-life expectancy for someone reaching their sixties.
  • Above average longevity models to the later end, reflecting strong health and a long-lived family.

For each claiming age, the model sums every monthly check from the claim date to the assumed end age, then compares the totals. The age with the largest total is the one the report recommends, and the break-even ages show exactly when a later claim overtakes an earlier one in cumulative dollars.

5. What the model deliberately does not do

This is a focused estimate, and honesty about its limits is part of the product:

  • It does not model federal or state income tax on your benefits, which can change the after-tax comparison.
  • It does not fully optimize spousal and survivor claiming, which is a genuinely complex problem worth an advisor's time. Where you enter a spouse, the report accounts for the household where it reasonably can and flags the rest.
  • It does not forecast your investment returns or model the "invest the early checks" strategy, which depends on assumptions no calculator can settle for you.
  • It expresses figures in today's dollars. Future cost-of-living adjustments raise all claiming ages together, so they do not change which age wins, but they do raise every total.
The bottom line. The report is a clear, rules-accurate estimate to inform your decision, built from your own numbers. It does not replace the Social Security Administration or a licensed financial advisor, and it says so on the report itself.
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