For most high-net-worth retirees, the answer is age 70. Delaying past your full retirement age adds 8 percent per year in delayed retirement credits, up to a permanent 24 percent increase at 70 for anyone with a full retirement age of 67.1 Claiming at 62 instead cuts your benefit by 30 percent for life.1 The gap between those two decisions, measured over a long retirement, runs into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The break-even points are specific. Delaying from 62 to 70 pays for itself by roughly age 80 and 4 months. Delaying from full retirement age to 70 breaks even around age 82 and 6 months. Live past those ages and the delay wins. Live to 90 and it wins substantially.
That is the general case, and most articles stop there. What they miss is that the calculus for a household with substantial investable assets differs from the general case in four specific ways, and each one strengthens the argument for waiting rather than weakening it. This guide works through them:
1. The longevity assumption behind the break-even math
2. How your benefit is taxed once your income is already high
3. Funding a bridge from your portfolio while you delay
4. Spousal and survivor benefit coordination
We close with the cases where claiming early is genuinely the better decision, because they do exist.
What Delaying Actually Buys You
The table below models a worker with a primary insurance amount of $4,000 per month at a full retirement age of 67, which is representative of a career high earner. Cumulative figures are stated in nominal dollars without cost-of-living adjustments or discounting, so they illustrate the shape of the tradeoff rather than a projection of your own benefit.
| Claiming Age | Percent of PIA | Monthly Benefit | Cumulative Through 85 | Cumulative Through 90 | Cumulative Through 95 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 62 | 70% | $2,800 | $772,800 | $940,800 | $1,108,800 |
| 65 | 86.7% | $3,467 | $832,100 | $1,040,100 | $1,248,100 |
| 67 (FRA) | 100% | $4,000 | $864,000 | $1,104,000 | $1,344,000 |
| 70 | 124% | $4,960 | $892,800 | $1,190,400 | $1,488,000 |
Claiming at 70 produces the lowest cumulative total at 85 and the highest at 90 and 95. Where you land depends almost entirely on how long you live.
Read the bottom row across and the pattern is clear. Through age 85, the four claiming ages land within about $120,000 of each other, which is close enough that the decision looks like a coin flip. Through 95, claiming at 70 produces roughly $379,000 more than claiming at 62. The decision is not really about Social Security. It is about longevity.
Problem 1: The Break-Even Math Assumes a Lifespan You Probably Will Not Have
Every break-even calculation you will find online is built on population-average mortality. That average includes everyone, and affluent households are systematically not average. The Congressional Budget Office projects that a 65-year-old man with higher lifetime earnings will live roughly six years longer than a 65-year-old man in the lower income quintiles.2 If you've built significant savings, have access to good medical care, and have reached your early sixties in good health, the population average understates your planning horizon by a meaningful margin.
The solution is to run the decision against joint longevity, not individual longevity. For a married couple both age 65, there is roughly a 50 percent chance that at least one of them lives past 90.3 Your Social Security decision is not a bet on your own lifespan. It is a bet on the longer of two lifespans, and that distinction moves the answer decisively toward delay.
Problem 2: Your Benefit Will Be Taxed Heavily No Matter What You Do
Up to 85 percent of Social Security benefits become taxable once provisional income exceeds $34,000 for single filers or $44,000 for joint filers, thresholds set in 1993 and never indexed for inflation.4 For a household at this asset level, those thresholds will be exceeded in virtually every year of retirement. The common advice to manage income in order to keep benefits untaxed is written for a different reader.
The solution is to stop optimizing for benefit taxation and optimize for your marginal bracket instead. Two consequences follow. First, because 85 percent of your benefit will be taxable regardless, a larger benefit is not disproportionately penalized, which removes the most frequently cited argument against delaying. Second, benefits are counted in the modified adjusted gross income that determines your Medicare surcharge, and the 2026 income-related monthly adjustment amount begins at $109,000 for single filers and $218,000 for joint filers and operates as a cliff rather than a phase-in.5 A larger benefit starting at 70 raises your floor permanently, which is a reason to complete Roth conversions before benefits begin, not a reason to claim earlier.
Problem 3: Delaying Means Funding Eight Years From Your Own Portfolio
If you retire at 62 and delay to 70, you need to replace the benefit you are not collecting. In the illustration above, that is roughly $268,800 of foregone payments, funded by selling assets that would otherwise stay invested. This is the real cost of delay, and it is the objection that stops most people.
The solution is to recognize what those eight years buy beyond the larger check. Drawing from your portfolio in the gap years produces unusually low taxable income, which is the ideal condition for partial Roth conversions and for filling the lower brackets deliberately. Delaying benefits and converting pre-tax balances are complementary moves, not competing ones. A household that claims at 62 forfeits both the delayed retirement credits and the conversion window, and the second loss is often larger than the first.
The bridge is also the reason this decision belongs to households with substantial assets in the first place. A retiree without a portfolio has no way to fund the gap and must claim early. If you can fund it, you hold an option that most claimants do not.
Problem 4: Married Couples Are Making One Decision When They Have Two
Couples frequently claim at the same time because they retire at the same time. Spousal and survivor benefits follow entirely separate rules, and treating the claim as a single joint decision leaves money on the table.
Spousal Benefits Do Not Grow With Delay
A spousal benefit is worth up to 50 percent of the higher earner’s primary insurance amount, taken at the spouse’s full retirement age.6 Delayed retirement credits do not increase it. There is no benefit to a lower-earning spouse delaying past their own full retirement age if they will be collecting on the spousal record.
Survivor Benefits Do Grow With Delay
A survivor benefit can reach 100 percent of what the deceased was actually receiving, including any delayed retirement credits earned.6 If the higher earner delays to 70, the surviving spouse inherits the larger amount for the rest of their life. Given that one spouse is likely to outlive the other by several years, this is the single strongest argument for the higher earner to wait.
The solution is to stagger the claims. In most affluent households, the higher earner delays to 70 to maximize both the couple’s benefit and the eventual survivor benefit, while the lower earner claims at or before their own full retirement age to provide household cash flow during the bridge years. The right pairing depends on the gap between the two earnings records and the age difference between spouses.
When Claiming Early Is the Right Answer
Delay is the default, not a rule. There are situations where claiming earlier is correct, and a fiduciary should say so plainly.
A diagnosed health condition that materially shortens life expectancy changes the break-even analysis directly. A significant age gap between spouses can favor an earlier claim by the younger, lower-earning spouse. And a household whose portfolio is concentrated in illiquid assets, a closely held business, or real estate may find that funding an eight-year bridge would force sales at unfavorable terms, which is a real cost that does not appear in any break-even table.
How We Approach the Decision
Claiming age is one input into a plan, not a standalone question. The right answer depends on your earnings record, your spouse’s record, your pre-tax balances, the Roth conversions you intend to complete, and the year your Medicare premium is determined. Those variables move together, which is why we evaluate them together. With access to an in-house CPA for the more complex cases, the claiming date is modeled alongside the conversion schedule and the withdrawal sequence rather than decided in isolation. As a fiduciary, we are obligated to recommend the approach that fits your circumstances, including the cases above where waiting is the wrong call.
For the companion piece on which accounts to draw from while you wait, see our guide to drawing income from multiple account types in retirement. For benefit amounts across income levels, see our data on Social Security benefits by income level.
Schedule a Consultation with Journey Advisory Group
If you would like to see the claiming decision modeled against your own records and portfolio, we welcome the conversation. Contact us at info@JourneyAdvisory.Group or call 800-749-7143. You can also visit JourneyAdvisory.Group to schedule a consultation with our team.
Disclosure
This material prepared by Journey Advisory Group, LLC is for informational purposes only. It is not intended to serve as a substitute for personalized financial, investment, tax, or legal advice, or as a recommendation or solicitation of any particular strategy or product. Facts presented have been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. Journey Advisory Group, however, cannot guarantee the accuracy or completeness of such information, and certain information may have been condensed or summarized from its original source.
Benefit figures shown in this material are hypothetical and are used for illustration only. They assume a primary insurance amount of $4,000 per month at a full retirement age of 67, and are stated in nominal dollars without cost-of-living adjustments, taxation, or discounting. Actual benefits depend on individual earnings records and are calculated by the Social Security Administration. Break-even ages derived from these illustrations will differ from your own. Benefit rules, claiming ages, income thresholds, and Medicare parameters reflect published figures as of the date of writing and are subject to legislative and regulatory change.
SEC Registration does not constitute an endorsement of the firm by the SEC nor does it indicate that the advisor has attained a particular level of skill or ability. Social Security claiming, Roth conversion, and withdrawal sequencing strategies involve considerations specific to each individual’s circumstances and should be reviewed with a qualified tax or legal professional as applicable. Journey Advisory Group does not provide legal advice.
Journey Advisory Group is a fee-based advisory firm and SEC-registered Registered Investment Adviser (RIA). Additional information about Journey Advisory Group’s services, fees, and potential conflicts of interest is available in Form ADV Parts 2A and 2B, which can be obtained through the SEC’s Investment Adviser Public Disclosure website at adviserinfo.sec.gov or by contacting the firm directly.
JAG does not provide tax or legal advice, and nothing contained in these materials should be taken as tax or legal advice.
References
1. Social Security Administration. "Early or Late Retirement." ssa.gov. Accessed August 2026.
2. Congressional Research Service. "The Growing Gap in Life Expectancy by Income: Recent Evidence and Implications for the Social Security Retirement Age." congress.gov, R44846. Accessed August 2026.
3. Social Security Administration, Office of the Chief Actuary. "Period Life Table." Actuarial Study No. 124. Accessed August 2026.
4. Internal Revenue Service. "Publication 915: Social Security and Equivalent Railroad Retirement Benefits." irs.gov. Accessed August 2026.
5. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. "2026 Medicare Parts A and B Premiums and Deductibles." cms.gov. Published November 2025.
6. Social Security Administration. "Benefits for Spouses" and "Survivors Benefits." ssa.gov. Accessed August 2026.