Your Benefit Depends Heavily on When You Claim
Social Security lets you claim as early as 62 or as late as 70 — and the monthly amount changes substantially depending on which you choose. This calculator applies the Social Security Administration's official adjustment formulas to your estimated benefit at Full Retirement Age (FRA), which you can find on your my Social Security statement.
Full Retirement Age by Birth Year
| Birth Year | FRA |
|---|---|
| 1943–1954 | 66 |
| 1955 | 66 and 2 months |
| 1956 | 66 and 4 months |
| 1957 | 66 and 6 months |
| 1958 | 66 and 8 months |
| 1959 | 66 and 10 months |
| 1960 and later | 67 |
Claiming Early: The Reduction
Claiming before FRA permanently reduces your benefit: 5/9 of 1% per month for the first 36 months early, then 5/12 of 1% per month beyond that. For someone with an FRA of 67 claiming at 62 (60 months early), the total reduction is exactly 30%.
Delaying Past FRA: The Bonus
Each year you delay past FRA up to age 70 adds 8% per year (about 0.67%/month) in delayed retirement credits — there is no benefit to delaying past 70. Combined with the early-claim reduction, the swing between claiming at 62 and 70 is roughly 30% below FRA to 24% above it — a difference approaching 77% between the two extremes on the same base benefit.
Worked Example
FRA benefit of $2,200/month, born 1990 (FRA = 67): claiming at 62 gives about $1,540/month; waiting to 70 gives about $2,728/month — nearly $1,200 more per month for the same lifetime earnings record, in exchange for delaying eight years.
This estimate uses your self-reported FRA benefit. It does not calculate your benefit from your actual earnings record — get that figure from your SSA statement at ssa.gov.