Most people claim Social Security early, and it costs them dearly. Age 62 remains the single most popular age to file for benefits, with more than 20 percent of newly awarded retirees in any given year choosing the earliest possible claiming date. Meanwhile, only about 4 percent of Americans wait until age 70 to collect the maximum possible benefit. The result is a retirement landscape where the majority of workers lock in permanently reduced checks, sometimes losing hundreds of dollars a month for the rest of their lives. Consider someone entitled to $2,000 per month at their full retirement age of 67.
If they claim at 62, that check drops to roughly $1,400 per month — a 30 percent permanent reduction. If they wait until 70, it climbs to approximately $2,480 per month. That is a difference of more than $1,080 every single month between the earliest and latest claiming ages, and the gap only compounds over a long retirement. Yet nearly half of all Americans say they plan to claim before reaching full retirement age, according to U.S. News reporting on claiming behavior. This article breaks down what full retirement age actually means now that it has officially reached 67 in 2026, why so many people still claim early despite the penalty, how the financial math works for different claiming ages, and what you should weigh before making one of the most consequential financial decisions of your life.
Table of Contents
- Why Do Most People Choose Early Retirement Age Over Full Retirement Age?
- How the Full Retirement Age Increase to 67 Changes the Calculus
- The Real Dollar Difference Between Claiming at 62, 67, and 70
- When Claiming Early Actually Makes Financial Sense
- Spousal Benefits, Survivor Benefits, and the Hidden Costs of Claiming Early
- How the Average Claiming Age Has Shifted Over Time
- What Comes Next for Retirement Age Policy
- Conclusion
Why Do Most People Choose Early Retirement Age Over Full Retirement Age?
The reasons people claim Social Security at 62 are rarely about ignorance. Some workers are forced out of jobs through layoffs, health problems, or physically demanding careers that simply cannot continue into the mid-60s. Others have little retirement savings and need cash flow immediately. For many, the bird-in-hand logic is powerful: take the guaranteed money now rather than risk dying before collecting enough to make waiting worthwhile. According to Bankrate, age 62 is the most popular age to claim Social Security despite the financial penalty it carries. There is also a psychological element. After decades of paying into the system, people want to see returns.
The idea of leaving money on the table — even temporarily — feels wrong to many retirees. And because Social Security claiming decisions are irrevocable after 12 months, the pressure to get it right creates a bias toward action. Forty-four percent of americans say they plan to claim before reaching their full retirement age, locking in permanently reduced benefits. That figure suggests early claiming is not a fringe behavior but a mainstream default. However, the trend is shifting. The weighted average claiming age for newly retired workers has climbed to approximately 65 years as of 2023, up significantly from 63.8 for men and 64.0 for women back in 1998. More people are working longer, partly because jobs are less physically punishing on average, partly because retirement savings shortfalls push workers to delay. The data shows three notable spikes in claiming: at 62, at 66 to 67, and at 70 — suggesting that people who do not claim early tend to wait for specific strategic milestones rather than picking arbitrary ages.
How the Full Retirement Age Increase to 67 Changes the Calculus
Full retirement age officially reached 67 in 2026 for anyone born in 1960 or later, completing a 42-year transition that began with the 1983 Congressional reform. For those born in 1959, FRA was 66 years and 10 months. This is not just a bureaucratic detail. The higher your full retirement age, the steeper the penalty for claiming early, because the reduction is calculated based on how many months before FRA you file. When FRA was 65, claiming at 62 meant a 20 percent reduction. Now that FRA is 67, claiming at 62 means a 30 percent reduction — you receive only 70 percent of your full benefit.
That is a substantially worse deal for early claimers than it was for previous generations, and many people approaching retirement do not fully grasp this change. If you built your retirement plan around older assumptions about Social Security, the numbers may no longer add up the way you expected. Here is the critical warning: if you are between 62 and 67 and considering early claiming, understand that every month you file before your FRA locks in a permanent reduction. There is no catch-up mechanism. Your benefit does not reset to the full amount when you turn 67. The reduction applies for life and also affects survivor benefits for your spouse. The only narrow exception is if you withdraw your application within 12 months of filing and repay every dollar you received — a move that is financially impractical for most people.
The Real Dollar Difference Between Claiming at 62, 67, and 70
The numbers tell a stark story. The average monthly benefit for someone claiming at age 62 is approximately $1,424 per month, according to Motley Fool analysis. The average monthly benefit for someone claiming at age 70 is approximately $2,275 per month. That gap of roughly $850 per month works out to more than $10,000 per year in additional income for those who wait. A retiree born in 1960 or later can increase their benefit by 77 percent by claiming at 70 instead of 62. That is not a typo.
The combination of avoiding the early claiming penalty and earning delayed retirement credits of 8 percent per year past FRA creates a massive swing. For a specific example, someone with a full retirement age benefit of $2,000 per month would collect roughly $1,400 at 62 versus $2,480 at 70. Over a 20-year retirement from age 70 to 90, that higher monthly amount adds up to nearly $259,000 more in total benefits compared to the reduced amount — and that does not factor in annual cost-of-living adjustments that further widen the gap on a larger base amount. The 2026 numbers make this even more concrete. The maximum Social Security benefit at full retirement age of 67 in 2026 is $4,018 per month. The 2026 cost-of-living adjustment was 2.5 percent, applied to all benefits starting in January. For high earners, the difference between early and delayed claiming can mean the difference between a comfortable retirement and one that requires careful budgeting.
When Claiming Early Actually Makes Financial Sense
Despite everything above, claiming at 62 is not always the wrong move. The breakeven analysis — the age at which total benefits from delayed claiming surpass total benefits from early claiming — typically falls somewhere around 80 to 82 for someone choosing between 62 and 67. If you have a serious health condition or strong family history of early mortality, the math may favor taking money sooner. No amount of delayed retirement credits helps if you do not live long enough to collect them. There is also the opportunity cost argument. If you claim at 62 and invest the money or use it to pay off high-interest debt, the effective return could rival or exceed the 8 percent annual delayed retirement credit.
Someone who claims at 62 and uses the funds to eliminate a mortgage at 7 percent interest is arguably making a rational financial choice. The tradeoff is that Social Security provides a guaranteed, inflation-adjusted income stream, which is something no investment portfolio can perfectly replicate. The guaranteed nature of the delayed benefit is worth more than its nominal value suggests, especially as a hedge against living longer than expected. The decision also depends on whether you are still working. If you claim before FRA and earn above the earnings limit, Social Security temporarily withholds $1 for every $2 you earn above the threshold. Those withheld benefits are eventually returned through a higher monthly payment after FRA, but the cash flow disruption makes early claiming while working a poor strategy for most people. If you have been forced out of the workforce and need income, claiming early may be your best realistic option regardless of the long-term math.
Spousal Benefits, Survivor Benefits, and the Hidden Costs of Claiming Early
One of the most overlooked consequences of early claiming is its effect on spousal and survivor benefits. When you claim early, you do not just reduce your own check. You also reduce the survivor benefit available to your spouse after you die. In many households, particularly where one spouse earned significantly more than the other, this can be devastating. If the higher earner claims at 62 instead of 70 and dies first, the surviving spouse inherits a much smaller benefit for the rest of their life. For a couple where one partner earned considerably more, the difference can be hundreds of dollars per month during the surviving spouse’s most vulnerable years.
This is the scenario where delaying makes the strongest case — not as a personal retirement optimization, but as a form of life insurance for the lower-earning spouse. However, there is a limitation to keep in mind. If both spouses had similar earnings, the survivor benefit calculus matters less because the surviving spouse simply keeps the higher of the two benefits. And if the lower-earning spouse is in poor health, the urgency to maximize their individual benefit diminishes. Every household situation is different, which is why blanket advice to always delay or always claim early fails. The right answer depends on the specific health, income, savings, and family dynamics at play.
How the Average Claiming Age Has Shifted Over Time
The trend toward later claiming is real and measurable. In 1998, the weighted average claiming age was 63.8 for men and 64.0 for women. By 2023, it had climbed to approximately 65.2 for both men and women. That nearly 1.5-year shift represents millions of individual decisions to wait longer, driven by a combination of longer life expectancy, the gradual increase in full retirement age, better financial literacy, and the decline of traditional pensions that once made early retirement more feasible.
This shift also reflects changes in the labor market. More Americans work in service and knowledge-based jobs that do not wear out the body the way manufacturing and manual labor once did. Remote work has further extended career longevity for some. Still, the average of 65 means that most people are claiming two full years before the new FRA of 67 — suggesting that while progress has been made, the majority of retirees are still leaving money on the table.
What Comes Next for Retirement Age Policy
The conversation about retirement age is far from settled. With Social Security’s trust fund facing projected shortfalls, proposals to raise the full retirement age further — to 68, 69, or even 70 — surface regularly in policy debates. Any such change would take decades to phase in, just as the move from 65 to 67 did, but it would further penalize early claimers and reshape retirement planning for younger workers.
For anyone currently in their 40s or 50s, the safest assumption is that your full retirement age may be higher than 67 by the time you get there, or that benefit formulas may adjust downward. Building a retirement plan that does not depend entirely on Social Security at any specific age is the most resilient approach. The claiming decision will always matter, but it matters most when Social Security is the primary or sole source of retirement income — which, for roughly 40 percent of retirees, it effectively is.
Conclusion
The data is clear: most Americans claim Social Security before full retirement age, with 62 remaining the single most popular claiming age. This choice costs them up to 30 percent of their benefit permanently, now that FRA has reached 67 for anyone born in 1960 or later. The average claiming age of about 65 shows that while people are waiting longer than they did a generation ago, the majority still leave significant money behind.
Only 4 percent manage to wait until 70, where the 77 percent increase over age-62 benefits represents the best guaranteed return most retirees will ever find. Your claiming decision should be based on your specific health, savings, employment status, spousal situation, and how much you depend on Social Security as a share of retirement income. Run your numbers through the SSA’s own calculators, consider the survivor benefit implications, and resist the pull of claiming simply because you can. For many people, every year of delay between 62 and 70 buys meaningfully more financial security in the decades that follow.