Social Security · 2026 bend points & COLA · claim ages 62–70
Social Security Benefit Estimator
Estimate your monthly Social Security check at every claiming age from 62 to 70, find your full retirement age, and see whether it pays to wait — all in today's dollars, using the 2026 formula.
Your full retirement age (FRA) is 67.
Earnings covered by Social Security (up to the $184,500 cap).
Earliest is 62 (reduced); waiting past your FRA adds 8%/year up to 70.
Estimated benefit if you claim at 67
$2,346/mo
That's $28,151/year in today's dollars — 100% of your $2,346/mo full benefit at 67. Social Security adds an annual COLA on top.
Your monthly benefit by claiming age
Claim at 62
$1,642
70% · earliest
At FRA (67)
$2,346
100% · full benefit
Claim at 70
$2,909
124% · maximum
Should you wait?
Waiting from 62 to 70 raises your check from $1,642 to $2,909 — $1,267/month more, or 77% bigger for life. But you skip 8 years of checks, so waiting only pays off in total if you live past about age 80. Claiming early wins if you expect a shorter life or need the money sooner; delaying is longevity insurance.
Rough estimate in today's dollars, using the 2026 bend-point formula ($1,286 / $7,749 at 90/32/15%) and SSA's claiming adjustments (−5/9 of 1% per month early, +8%/year delayed to 70). It approximates your lifetime earnings from your current income and a full 35-year career — your real benefit depends on your actual earnings record, so check your statement at ssa.gov. The 2026 maximum at full retirement age is $4,207/mo; the average retiree gets about $2,071/mo. General information, not financial advice.
How your Social Security benefit is calculated
Social Security replaces part of your working income using a deliberately progressive formula. It takes your highest 35 years of earnings, indexes them for wage growth, and averages them into a monthly figure (your AIME). Then the 2026 formula converts that into your Primary Insurance Amount — the benefit you'd get at full retirement age: 90% of the first $1,286, plus 32% up to $7,749, plus 15% above. Those steep-then-shallow tiers are why a $30,000 earner gets back a much larger share of their income than a $150,000 earner: Social Security is designed to lift lower earners most.
The calculator estimates your benefit from your current income, assuming a full career — a genuinely useful ballpark, and the same approach the SSA's own Quick Calculator uses. But it can only approximate your real earnings history, so once you have a number you like, verify it against your actual statement at ssa.gov, which is free and takes minutes to set up.
Your full retirement age isn't always 67
"Full retirement age" (FRA) is when you get 100% of your benefit. For anyone born in 1960 or later it's 67. It steps down for older cohorts: 66 and 10 months for 1959, 66 and 8 months for 1958, and so on back to a flat 66 for those born 1943–1954. Your FRA matters because every claiming-age adjustment is measured from it — claim before your FRA and you take a permanent cut; claim after and you earn credits. The calculator reads your FRA straight from your birth year, so the whole benefit-by-age chart is tailored to you.
Claim at 62, 67, or 70? The most important decision
When you claim can swing your monthly check by more than 75%. Take it at the earliest age of 62 and you get 70% of your full benefit (the reduction is 5/9 of 1% for each of the first 36 months early, then 5/12 of 1% beyond that). Wait past your FRA and you earn delayed retirement credits of 8% a year up to age 70, where the benefit maxes out at 124%. That's the range the bar chart above shows for your income — from the short blue bar at 62 to the tall one at 70.
The math of waiting is really a bet on longevity. Delaying means giving up years of smaller checks in exchange for larger ones later, and the two roughly even out — the break-even is around age 80–81. Live longer than that and waiting until 70 wins; don't, and claiming early was right. Health, family history, whether you're still working, and whether you have other income all tilt the decision, which is why this tool shows you the break-even age for your own numbers rather than pretending there's one correct answer.
Why working longer (or more years) raises your check
Because the formula averages 35 years, any year you didn't work counts as a zero and drags your benefit down. Someone with only 10 years of earnings has 25 zeros in their average — which is why the same $50,000 salary yields about $2,079 a month over a full career but only about $1,071 with just 10 years worked. Each additional year of earnings replaces a zero (or a low early-career year), nudging your benefit up. It's one of the few retirement levers you can still pull late.
Social Security is a foundation, not a plan
For the average retiree, Social Security's ~$2,071 a month replaces only around 30–40% of pre-retirement income — enough to matter, nowhere near enough to live the same life. Treat it as the reliable, inflation-protected floor under your retirement, then build on top of it with your own savings. See how much you'll actually need with our retirement calculator, project your 401(k), and watch it grow with compound interest.
Worked example: a $60,000 earner, born 1971
The full benefit. Averaging a steady $60,000 income gives an AIME of about $5,000. The 2026 formula: 90% of $1,286 ($1,157) + 32% of the next $3,714 ($1,188) = a Primary Insurance Amount of about $2,346 a month — the benefit at full retirement age, which for a 1971 birth year is 67.
The claiming choice. Claim at 62 and the 30% early reduction cuts it to about $1,642 a month. Wait until 70 and the 24% in delayed credits lifts it to about $2,909 — nearly $1,270 a month more than claiming early, for life. Over a year that gap is more than $15,000.
The break-even. Waiting from 62 to 70 means skipping eight years of $1,642 checks (about $158,000) to get $1,267 more each month later. Those cross over at about age 80: live beyond it and patience paid; fall short and 62 was the better call. Run your own income and birth year above — the chart redraws to your exact benefit at every age.
Frequently asked questions
How do I estimate my Social Security benefit?
Your benefit is based on your highest 35 years of earnings, averaged and run through the 2026 formula: 90% of the first $1,286 of your average indexed monthly earnings, plus 32% up to $7,749, plus 15% above that — this gives your benefit at full retirement age (67 for anyone born in 1960 or later). Claiming earlier permanently reduces it; waiting increases it. This calculator estimates all of that from your income, but the most accurate figure comes from your personalized statement at ssa.gov, which uses your actual earnings record.
How much Social Security will I get if I make $60,000 a year?
A steady $60,000 earner retiring at full retirement age (67) gets roughly $2,346 a month in today's dollars — about $28,150 a year. Claim early at 62 and it drops to about $1,642; wait until 70 and it rises to about $2,909. For comparison, a $30,000 earner gets roughly $1,546 a month at FRA, a $50,000 earner about $2,079 (close to the $2,071 national average), and a $100,000 earner about $3,313. Higher earners get more in dollars but a smaller percentage of their income back, because the formula is progressive.
Is it better to take Social Security at 62 or wait until 70?
It's a longevity bet. Claiming at 62 gives you 70% of your full benefit but for up to eight more years; waiting until 70 gives you 124% — a check about 77% larger for life — but you forgo those early years. The break-even is around age 80–81: live past it and waiting pays more in total; die before it and claiming early wins. Wait if you're healthy, have longevity in your family, or have other income to live on; claim earlier if you need the money, have health concerns, or want to stop working. There's no universal right answer — it depends on your life expectancy and cash needs.
What is the maximum Social Security benefit in 2026?
In 2026 the maximum monthly benefit is $2,969 if you claim at 62, $4,207 at full retirement age (67), and $5,181 if you wait until 70. Reaching the maximum is rare — it requires earning at or above the Social Security wage cap ($184,500 in 2026) for at least 35 years. Most people get far less: the average retired worker collects about $2,071 a month in 2026. Use the calculator above to estimate where you'll actually land based on your own income.
How much Social Security will I get if I only worked 10 years?
Ten years (40 credits) is the minimum to qualify for a retirement benefit at all — with fewer, you generally get nothing. But your benefit averages your highest 35 years of earnings, so with only 10 years of work the other 25 years count as $0 and drag the average down hard. A $50,000 earner with a full 35-year career might get about $2,079 a month, but with only 10 years worked the estimate falls to roughly $1,071 — barely half. Working more years, even at modest pay, replaces those zeros and raises your check. Use the 'years worked' option above to see the effect.
Will Social Security still be there when I retire?
Almost certainly, though possibly reduced. The Social Security trustees project the main retirement trust fund's reserves could be depleted around 2033. That does not mean benefits go to zero — even with no reserves, ongoing payroll taxes would still cover roughly 77–80% of scheduled benefits, and Congress has always acted before past shortfalls (as in 1983). This calculator uses current-law benefits; plan for the full amount but treat a possible future trim as a risk, and don't rely on Social Security alone — pair it with your own retirement savings.
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