Planning Walkthrough
Find your optimal claiming age. See cumulative benefit comparisons from 62 to 70, and feed the result directly into your Monte Carlo projection.
Your Social Security benefit is based on your 35 highest-earning years. You can start claiming as early as age 62 (at a reduced amount) or delay up to age 70 (at an increased amount). Each year you delay past your Full Retirement Age (FRA) adds roughly 8% to your monthly benefit.
The trade-off: claim early and get more years of payments, or delay and get larger payments for fewer years. The “break-even” point is typically around 80–82 — if you live past that, delaying usually wins.
Permanently reduced benefit — roughly 70% of your FRA amount. Makes sense if you need the income, have health concerns, or have other investments that can grow while SS covers basic expenses.
100% of your calculated benefit. No reduction, no bonus. The “default” option for most people.
~124%–132% of your FRA amount (depending on birth year). Best for healthy retirees with other income to bridge the gap. Every year of delay beyond FRA adds approximately 8%.
Go to Intelligence → Planning → Social Security.
Provide your current age, Full Retirement Age benefit (from your SSA statement), and life expectancy estimate.
The chart shows cumulative lifetime benefits for ages 62 through 70. The tool highlights the optimal age based on your inputs.
Click “Use These Results in Monte Carlo” to pre-fill your projection with the optimal claiming age and monthly benefit. This connects your SS decision directly to your retirement probability model.
See how delaying or claiming early affects your lifetime benefits.