Social Security: Claim Now or Wait Until Later?

And if you are married, you can coordinate your benefits with your spouse in a way that gives you some of the advantages of waiting. If you are the lower-earning spouse, for example, you can take your benefits at full retirement age, get monthly checks and later claim your later-filing spouse’s higher benefits if you are the survivor. And if you have children under the age of 18, they can each collect half your benefits every year once you file. (The family as a whole, however, can’t collect more than 180 percent of the parent’s full retirement age benefit.)​

Finally, if you do decide to take your benefit at full retirement age, that decision is not irrevocable. “Change your mind within 12 months of starting your benefits and you can get a do-over by repaying the benefits already collected,” Czarnowski says. Even after that 12-month deadline, you can simply suspend benefits and begin increasing your benefits at a rate of two-thirds of 1 percent a month, which comes out to 8 percent a year. ​

The expert: ​Elaine Floyd, is director of retirement and life planning with Horsesmouth, a New York company that trains financial advisers on Social Security strategies and other issues.

​That 8 percent annual increase in your benefit isn’t trivial; three or four years of 8 percent annual credits could mean many hundreds more in benefit dollars per month. That can make your later years more free of worry. “It’s longevity insurance in case you live a long time,” Floyd says. ​

The other expert notes the benefits of married couples being strategic about when to claim, but it’s particularly smart for the higher-earning spouse to wait to claim until 70. Take a man who gets $2,600 a month or $31,200 a year in Social Security income at full retirement age of 66 while his lower-earning spouse gets $1,800 a month or $21,600 a year claiming at the same age. When he dies, his wife can claim annual survivor income of $31,200. But if he had waited to claim until age 70, those annual survivor benefits would be $41,184 — about $10,000 a year higher. ​

As for the chance you’ll die young and miss out on your benefit, “In financial planning it’s generally better to bet on living longer rather than betting on dying sooner,” Floyd says.​​

The data bears that out. At age 70, about a quarter of men are expected to live to see age 90. For women, more than 35 percent are projected to hit 90. “Although people may initially want their money as soon as possible, they often change their minds once they do the math,” Floyd says. ​

Finally, if you decide to wait but have an emergency or just a change of heart, you can always change plans and file to begin collection. Whatever time you waited after full retirement age has an impact — even if you claim before age 70. “Your benefits increase by two-thirds of 1 percent for every month that you delay taking your Social Security,” Floyd says. ​

Lynn Asinof is a personal finance journalist who spent 20 years at The Wall Street Journal and has written for Money, Fortune and The Boston Globe.