Although you can start Social Security benefits as early as age 62, waiting as long as possible (until age 70) will increase your benefits. Suppose your monthly benefit at full retirement age (now 66) would be $2,400 a month.
* If you start at the earliest date, age 62, your monthly check would be only $1,800, plus any future cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs).
* If you start at the latest date, age 70, your monthly check would be $3,168, plus any future COLAs.
Waiting may be particularly appealing for a married couple. After one spouse dies, the surviving spouse will collect whichever is higher: his or her own monthly benefit or the deceased spouse’s benefit.
Suppose, for example, that Dan Smith waits until age 70 to start his benefits. He collects those benefits for many years, until he is receiving $3,800 a month at the time of his death. Dan’s wife Ellen, whose own working career was abbreviated, had been receiving $1,900 a month–half of Dan’s benefit. After Dan dies, Ellen will collect the higher benefit–Dan’s $3,800 per month plus COLAs–for the rest of her life.
Unless there is a pressing need for money, if the higher-earning spouse has a shorter life expectancy, he should wait to start Social Security benefits.
