Deciding when to start pulling from Social Security. It is arguably the biggest money move you make before retiring. Once you click that button, there is no undo feature. No take-backs. As Rick Reed from Segal put it, it’s irreversible. And there’s no single age that fits every soul on this planet.
So here is what it costs you to press start early, middle, or late in 2026
The sixty-two gamble
You can claim at sixty-two. Earliest allowed. You get checks. Bills get paid. Life goes on. But you are taking a permanent haircut. Up to thirty percent.
Why?
The math. The total pool of money you earned gets spread thinner. Much thinner. Reed explained it distributes the amount over a much longer horizon.
Some people think thirty percent is too high. Maybe you are healthy. Maybe your family has genes of iron. Reed notes that for them, early claiming makes less sense. It depends on your life expectancy. Your savings. Whether you need cash right now.
But don’t pretend it doesn’t cost anything.
The sixty-five myth
Most boomers associate sixty-five with “full benefits.” That is because that used to be true. Now it isn’t.
Full Retirement Age is sixty-seven. For anyone born in 1960. The system slowly nudged the goalpost.
Melanie Musson from Quote.com broke it down. Claim at sixty-seven. You get 100%. Claim at sixty-five. You take a hit.
It reduces by 5/9ths of one percent each month for thirty-six months before hitting full age.
Do the math. You lose about 13.3%.
Just like that. Because tradition told you sixty-five was the magic number.
Waiting till seventy
Patience pays off. Sometimes really pays off.
Delaying until seventy unlocks the maximum benefit. The financial gap is not small. It’s huge. Yehuda Tropper of Beca Life Settlements showed the difference. Claim at sixty-two and your max is around $2,969 a month. Wait till seventy and it jumps to $5,180.
Almost double.
Waiting until seventy makes sense if you are healthy, working, or have investments to cover the gap.
It’s not for everyone. If your health is fragile, the wait is risky. You might not live long enough to recoup the lost years of checks. Money now might matter more than money later.
Who is right? Who is wrong? Nobody really. You just have to know the trade-offs before the check arrives.
