What claiming age actually changes

Benefits can generally begin between 62 and 70. Claiming before full retirement age permanently reduces the monthly amount; delaying past it permanently increases it, until the increases stop at 70.

Break-even analysis — the age at which delaying overtakes claiming early — is the usual framing, and it is incomplete. It treats the decision as a bet on longevity alone.

The broader effect is that Social Security is inflation-adjusted income that continues for life, so a larger benefit reduces how much the portfolio must produce in the years that matter most. Delaying also creates the low-income window in which other planning moves become possible.

Against that: delaying requires spending from the portfolio in the meantime, health circumstances vary, and for married couples the two claiming decisions interact. There is no universally correct age, only an analysis that has to include your own facts.