This site publishes specific numbers: reduction percentages for claiming early, delayed-retirement credits, break-even ages, and monthly-income examples. This page explains where those figures come from and how we calculate them, so you can check our work.
Primary sources
Our benefit rules come from the Social Security Administration (ssa.gov): the full-retirement-age schedule, the early-claiming reduction (up to 30% at 62 for those with an FRA of 67), the 8% per year delayed-retirement credits to age 70, the annual cost-of-living adjustment, and the earnings test. Where a figure depends on the year, we state the year in the text.
How we calculate break-even ages
A break-even age is the age at which the larger lifetime total from delaying overtakes the smaller-but-earlier total from claiming sooner. We compute it by summing monthly benefits from each claiming age forward and finding the crossover. Unless we say otherwise, break-even figures are in nominal dollars and assume the same cost-of-living adjustment applies to every claiming age. Accounting for the time value of money pushes break-even ages modestly later, which we note where it matters.
How we build the monthly-income examples
Income examples (for instance, the $1,000 to $5,000 tables) are illustrative. They apply the published reduction and credit percentages to a stated primary insurance amount. They are not a forecast of your benefit, which depends on your own 35-year earnings record.
What we do not do
We do not sell benefit estimates, and we do not give personalized advice. For your actual numbers, use your Social Security statement at ssa.gov/myaccount. Treat everything here as a framework to bring to that conversation.
How often we review this
We review rate-sensitive figures at least once a year and whenever the Social Security Administration announces a new cost-of-living adjustment or updates the FRA schedule. Corrections can be requested through our Contact page and are dated when applied.