A 62-year-old with a strong earnings history who claims Social Security today walks away with at most $2,969 a month. The same person at 70 collects up to $5,181. That's more than $26,000 extra per year, every year, for life, adjusted upward for inflation. The difference comes entirely from timing, and timing is just one of the levers.
The 35 years of earnings your benefit is calculated from, errors the Social Security Administration has on file for you, the benefit a spouse or ex-spouse may be entitled to, the way your other income interacts with your check at tax time: all of it can be shaped. Most people don't find out how until it's too late to do much about it. These 13 strategies can help.
Delay claiming past full retirement age
For anyone born in 1960 or later, full retirement age is 67. Claim at 62 and your benefit is permanently reduced by 30 percent. Wait until 70 and it's permanently increased by 24 percent above the full retirement age amount, thanks to delayed retirement credits that build at 8 percent per year between full retirement age and 70.
In 2026, the maximum benefit for someone who waits until 70 is $5,181 per month, compared to $4,152 at full retirement age and $2,969 at 62. Even for someone well below those maximums, the percentage gains are identical. A $2,000 benefit at 67 becomes $2,480 at 70.
The break-even point, the age at which waiting pays off in cumulative terms, typically falls in the early-to-mid 80s. Average life expectancy for a man who reaches 65 is around 82; for a woman, about 85. For married couples, the case for the higher earner delaying is even stronger, because the higher earner's check becomes the survivor's check when one spouse dies. Waiting doesn't just raise your monthly income. It raises the amount your partner will collect for the rest of their life.
Work for at least 35 years
Social Security calculates your benefit using your 35 highest-earning years, each adjusted for wage inflation. If you worked fewer than 35 years, SSA fills in the gaps with zeros, and those zeros drag your average down hard.
One missing year has a real cost. A worker who spent two years out of the workforce caring for children or a parent can often raise their benefit meaningfully by working those extra two years before filing, even at modest income, because any earnings year replaces a zero. The dollar amount of the replacement year matters less than the fact that it isn't a zero.
This hits hardest for people who took extended time off for caregiving, changed careers with gaps in between, or entered the workforce late. If you're within a few years of filing and short of 35 years on your record, each additional year you work is doing double duty: it's income now, and it's raising your 35-year average permanently. Even a part-time income year in your early 60s replaces a zero, which raises the base from which every future cost-of-living adjustment is calculated, for the rest of your life.
Review your earnings record for errors
Your Social Security benefit is only as accurate as the data behind it. Employer reporting mistakes, name changes that were never updated, transposed Social Security numbers, and data entry errors all happen and most people never catch them because they never look.
your complete earnings history is available free through SSA's online portal. Compare each year's figure against your own records, W-2s, or tax returns. Look for gaps and for years where the number seems lower than your memory of it. Corrections generally must be submitted within three years, three months, and 15 days of the tax year when the wages were paid, though exceptions exist for employer omissions and errors apparent in the existing record.
If you find a problem, you can request a correction through your mySSA account online, or submit Form SSA-7008 by mail or in person at a local SSA office. You'll need documentation: W-2s, pay stubs, and federal tax returns. Keep copies of everything you send. A single corrected year can change a calculation that compounds over 20 or more years of monthly payments into something meaningful.
Earn more in your peak working years
Every year you work, Social Security keeps the 35 highest-earning years from your full history, each indexed for wage inflation. If you're in your 50s or early 60s and earning significantly more than you did at 25 or 30, each high-income year you add potentially replaces a lower-indexed year in your record and directly raises your average.
Earnings above the annual taxable maximum don't count for Social Security purposes. In 2026, that cap is $184,500. Every dollar below the cap in a year where you weren't already at the maximum is building your record. The people who collect the highest possible Social Security benefit are those who hit or approached the taxable maximum for 35 years.
For anyone in a career with a steep earnings trajectory, this strategy is worth building into the retirement timeline. A 58-year-old earning significantly more than they did in their 30s is actively replacing older, lower-indexed years with each additional year they work. That's a real financial argument for staying in the workforce longer or taking on more hours before filing, not just for the paycheck but because each high-earning year raises the base from which every future cost-of-living adjustment is calculated.
Claim spousal benefits if your own benefit is lower
If you're married, you may be entitled to up to 50 percent of your spouse's full retirement age benefit. Social Security will pay whichever is higher between your own benefit and the spousal amount. You don't receive both; you receive the larger of the two.
To collect the full 50 percent, you need to wait until your own full retirement age. Claiming spousal benefits early reduces the amount permanently, just as early claiming reduces your own benefit. There's also no advantage to waiting past full retirement age for a spousal benefit: unlike your own retirement benefit, spousal benefits don't earn delayed retirement credits. The ceiling is 50 percent of your spouse's primary insurance amount, and you hit it at full retirement age. Waiting past 67 for a spousal benefit adds nothing.
For couples where one spouse worked significantly less or stepped out of the workforce to raise children, this benefit can add hundreds of dollars a month. The coordination matters: the higher-earning spouse must be actively receiving their benefit before the lower-earning spouse can claim a spousal benefit. If the higher earner is delaying to 70, the lower earner can't access the spousal benefit in the meantime. Some couples address this by having the lower earner claim on their own record at 62 for income while they wait, then switch to the spousal amount once the higher earner files.
Check whether your ex-spouse's record pays more
If you were married for at least 10 years and haven't remarried, you may be entitled to up to 50 percent of your ex-spouse's Social Security benefit, even if they've moved on and remarried since. Your claim has zero effect on what they or their current spouse receive, and SSA doesn't notify your ex that you filed.
You can claim on a former spouse's record starting at 62. If the divorce was more than two years ago, you can file even if your ex hasn't started collecting yet, which is a key difference from current-marriage spousal benefits. The same timing rule applies: waiting until your own full retirement age gets you the full, unreduced 50 percent. Filing earlier reduces the amount permanently.
Many divorced people, especially those who spent significant time out of the workforce during a marriage, have no idea this benefit exists. SSA doesn't proactively notify you of your eligibility. You have to ask. If your marriage lasted 10 or more years and your ex was the higher earner, ask SSA to compare what you'd receive on your own record versus the divorced-spouse benefit. You receive the higher of the two. And if your ex has since died, a different and more generous rule applies: surviving divorced spouses may be entitled to up to 100 percent of the deceased's benefit, as long as the marriage lasted at least 10 years.
Think strategically about survivor benefits if you're married
When one spouse dies, the surviving spouse keeps the larger of the two Social Security checks. The smaller one stops. This means the higher earner's claiming age is a household decision, with consequences for the survivor that can play out over 20 or more years.
If the higher earner delays to 70 and those delayed retirement credits are embedded in the monthly check, the survivor inherits that larger amount at full value. If the higher earner claimed at 62 and locked in a permanent 30-percent reduction, the survivor inherits the smaller, reduced figure. The compounding difference over a long widowhood is substantial.
Widows and widowers can also begin claiming survivor benefits as early as age 60, two years earlier than any other Social Security benefit. And unlike spousal benefits for a living spouse, survivor benefits allow a strategic split: a widow can claim survivor benefits first and switch to their own retirement benefit later, or vice versa, depending on which produces the higher lifetime income. Someone widowed at 62 might take reduced survivor benefits now while letting their own retirement benefit grow until 70, then switch to the larger amount. Call SSA directly and ask for your survivor benefit estimate; they can tell you the exact dollar figure you'd be entitled to on your spouse's record.
Suspend your benefit payments if you claimed early
Already collecting Social Security but wish you'd waited? Once you reach full retirement age, you can ask SSA to suspend your monthly benefit payments. Each month you stay suspended earns you delayed retirement credits at the same 8-percent-per-year rate, added on top of whatever benefit level you're currently at.
Voluntary suspension is available between full retirement age and age 70. Suspending at 67 and restarting at 70 adds 24 percent to your monthly check. It doesn't undo an early-claiming reduction, but it improves on your current amount. SSA will automatically reinstate and raise your benefit at age 70 if you don't request a restart before then.
Two things to handle before you suspend. First, if your current spouse is collecting benefits based on your record, those payments also stop during your suspension. A divorced ex-spouse's benefit is an exception and continues unaffected. Second, Medicare Part B premiums can no longer be deducted from a suspended benefit, so CMS will bill you directly. Missing those payments can result in losing Part B coverage, which takes real effort to restore. Set up automatic payment for Part B premiums from a bank account before your benefit stops.
Check whether the WEP and GPO repeal applies to you
The Social Security Fairness Act, signed into law in January 2025, permanently eliminated two provisions that had been cutting benefits for millions of public-sector workers: the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset.
Before the repeal, teachers, police officers, firefighters, federal employees under the Civil Service Retirement System, and others who received pensions from jobs not covered by Social Security faced significant benefit reductions. WEP cut their own Social Security retirement benefits. GPO reduced or wiped out spousal and survivor benefits. Both are permanently gone, retroactively to January 2024.
SSA processed adjustments automatically for existing beneficiaries and by mid-2025 had sent over 3.1 million retroactive payments totaling $17 billion. If you were affected by WEP or GPO and haven't seen a revised benefit amount, log into your mySSA account at ssa.gov/myaccount or call 1-800-772-1213. And if you previously skipped applying for spousal or survivor benefits because GPO would have zeroed them out, those applications are worth filing now. The offset no longer exists.
Manage your income to reduce taxes on your benefit
Up to 85 percent of your Social Security benefit can be subject to federal income tax. Whether any of it is taxable, and how much, depends on what the IRS calls your “combined income”: your adjusted gross income, plus tax-exempt interest, plus half your Social Security benefit.
For single filers, benefits start becoming taxable above $25,000 in combined income, with up to 85 percent taxable above $34,000. For married couples filing jointly, those lines are $32,000 and $44,000. These thresholds haven't been adjusted for inflation since the 1980s and 1990s, which means more retirees cross into taxable territory every year as cost-of-living adjustments raise benefits and other income grows. IRA withdrawals, pension income, and even tax-exempt municipal bond interest all feed this formula.
There are real levers available. Roth conversions done in your early 60s, before you claim, can reduce future required minimum distributions that would otherwise push combined income above the thresholds. A temporary deduction of up to $6,000 per person is available through 2028 for taxpayers 65 and older with income below $75,000 (single) or $150,000 (joint), and can move some retirees below the point where benefits become taxable. You can also request federal tax withholding directly from your Social Security check through your mySSA account using IRS Form W-4V, to avoid a large bill in April.
Sign up for Medicare at 65 regardless of when you claim
If you plan to delay Social Security until 70, you still need to enroll in Medicare at 65. Enrollment isn't automatic unless you're already collecting Social Security benefits. Miss the initial enrollment window and you pay a permanent 10-percent penalty on Part B premiums for every 12-month period you could have enrolled but didn't. For most people, that penalty follows them for the rest of their lives.
You can apply for Medicare directly through SSA, separately from retirement benefits, starting three months before you turn 65. Part A (hospital coverage) is free for most people. Part B (outpatient care) costs $206.50 per month in 2026. You don't have to be collecting Social Security to enroll.
The reverse situation is also worth knowing. If you do claim Social Security before 65, Medicare enrollment happens automatically at 65 and the Part B premium is deducted from your check. In 2026, the 2.8 percent COLA added roughly $56 per month to the average benefit, while the Part B premium increased by $21.50, leaving many beneficiaries with a net gain closer to $34. The Medicare premium is the single biggest drain on what looks like a COLA raise, and understanding that reality before you finalize your timeline changes how both decisions look.
Know the earnings test before you claim early
If you claim before full retirement age and you're still working, SSA will withhold benefits for every dollar you earn above the annual limit. In 2026, that threshold is $24,480 per year for those under full retirement age all year. For every $2 above the limit, $1 in benefits is withheld. In the year you reach full retirement age, the threshold jumps to $65,160, with $1 withheld for every $3 earned above that amount.
The withheld money isn't lost. When you reach full retirement age, SSA recalculates your benefit to give you credit for every month payments were withheld due to the earnings test, which permanently raises your monthly check from that point forward. The earnings test is a cash flow problem, not a lifetime loss.
What this means practically: claiming before full retirement age while still earning significant income is rarely the right call. The withholding eats much of what you'd collect, and you're simultaneously locking in a permanent base reduction. If you do claim early and return to work or take on more income, report your expected earnings to SSA right away. Receiving benefits you're not entitled to creates an overpayment situation SSA will eventually collect, often in a lump sum.
Use your mySSA account to plan before you apply
The Social Security Administration's portal at SSA's free online portal shows your complete earnings history, your projected benefit at ages 62, 67, and 70, and your full Social Security statement, which also includes estimated survivor and disability benefits. This is the number to plan from, not a third-party estimate.
Setting up an account now, even years before you plan to file, is worth the 10 minutes. Your earnings history is how you catch errors while there's still time to correct them. The projected benefit comparisons show you in concrete dollar terms what the claiming-age decision actually costs. From the portal, you can also apply for retirement benefits online, set up or update direct deposit, request federal tax withholding, and view your COLA notice each year. Survivor and some spousal claims require a phone call to 1-800-772-1213 or an in-person appointment at a local SSA office rather than online filing.
If you want help thinking through your strategy, State Health Insurance Assistance Programs (SHIP) provide free one-on-one counseling on Medicare and Social Security questions at no cost to you. For more sophisticated scenario modeling, a fee-only financial planner or Registered Social Security Analyst can walk through your specific numbers before you make a decision that's largely permanent. The claiming age you choose locks in a base benefit for life. Getting that number right before you file is worth more attention than most people give it.
