For most people approaching retirement, one of the biggest financial decisions comes down to a single question: when should you start taking Social Security? It sounds simple. In practice, the age you choose can shape your income for the rest of your life, and there is rarely one answer that works for everyone.
If you are within a few years of retirement, this is worth thinking through carefully. The difference between claiming early and claiming later can be substantial, and the choice interacts with your other income sources, your health, your spouse, and your tax picture. Here is what pre-retirees should understand before deciding.
The core trade-off: claiming at 62, 67, or 70
Social Security lets you begin retirement benefits as early as age 62, but the age you choose changes the size of your monthly benefit for life.
Claiming early (as early as 62)
You can start benefits at 62, but doing so permanently reduces your monthly amount compared with waiting until full retirement age. For people reaching retirement now, that reduction can be roughly a quarter to a third of the full benefit. Claiming early can still make sense in certain situations, such as needing the income, health concerns, or wanting to preserve other assets. The key word is permanent: the reduced amount generally stays with you.
Claiming at full retirement age
Your full retirement age, often called FRA, is the point at which you receive 100 percent of your earned benefit. For anyone born in 1960 or later, that age is 67. Waiting until FRA avoids the early-claiming reduction and can serve as a sensible middle ground for many people.
Delaying to age 70
If you delay past full retirement age, your benefit grows through what are called delayed retirement credits, adding roughly 8 percent per year up to age 70. There is no benefit to waiting beyond 70, so that marks the ceiling. For people in good health with other income to bridge the gap, delaying can meaningfully increase guaranteed lifetime income. That said, waiting is not automatically the right move. It depends on your broader plan.
Spousal and survivor benefits
Social Security is not only about your own earnings record. If you are married, divorced after a long marriage, or widowed, additional rules may apply.
A spousal benefit can provide up to 50 percent of the higher earner’s full retirement age benefit, which may be valuable when one spouse earned significantly more than the other. Survivor benefits are a separate and often overlooked consideration: when one spouse passes away, the survivor generally keeps the larger of the two benefits. This is one reason the higher earner’s claiming decision matters so much. Delaying the larger benefit can raise the amount a surviving spouse receives for the rest of their life.
For couples, these decisions are best coordinated rather than made in isolation. The timing that maximizes one person’s benefit may not produce the best combined outcome for the household.
How Social Security works alongside your FRS pension
Many Florida public employees, including teachers, firefighters, and law enforcement, will receive both a Florida Retirement System pension and Social Security. Understanding how the two fit together is an important part of planning.
If you spent your career in Florida public service, you may have heard about two federal rules: the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset. These once reduced Social Security benefits for people who received a pension from work that did not pay into Social Security. The Social Security Fairness Act, signed into law in January 2025, eliminated both provisions.
It is worth understanding what this change actually means for you. These rules only ever applied to what is called non-covered employment, meaning jobs where Social Security taxes were not withheld from your pay. Many FRS-covered positions do participate in Social Security, so a large number of Florida public employees were never affected in the first place. Whether the repeal changes anything for you depends on your specific employment history, and it is worth confirming rather than assuming.
Even where these provisions never applied, your FRS pension still interacts with your Social Security decision in other ways. Pension income affects how much of your Social Security benefit may be taxable and can influence Medicare-related costs later on. If you are weighing a DROP decision or the timing of your pension, it is worth looking at Social Security in the same conversation rather than treating them as separate choices.
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Other factors that should shape your decision
The claiming-age question rarely stands on its own. A few other considerations often carry real weight:
Health and longevity. If you expect a longer retirement, delaying can pay off over time. If health concerns suggest otherwise, claiming earlier may be more appropriate. Family history and your own situation both matter here.
Whether you are still working. If you claim before full retirement age and continue to work, Social Security may temporarily withhold part of your benefit once your earnings pass an annual limit. Those amounts are not lost. Your benefit is recalculated upward once you reach full retirement age. Still, it is a reason many people who keep working choose to wait.
Taxes and Medicare costs. Depending on your total income, a portion of your Social Security benefit may be subject to federal income tax. Higher combined income can also affect certain Medicare premiums. Coordinating when and how you draw from different accounts can help you manage this.
Your other assets. If you have retirement accounts, a pension, or other savings, you may have the flexibility to delay Social Security and let it grow. The right sequence for drawing down accounts is worth planning deliberately.
There is no universal right answer
The best Social Security claiming strategy is the one that fits your full financial picture, not a rule of thumb. Two people the same age, with similar benefits, can reach very different and equally reasonable conclusions once health, marital status, other income, and tax considerations are weighed.
This is where working through the numbers with a fiduciary advisor can help. At Palm Wealth Partners, we help pre-retirees look at Social Security timing alongside pensions, FRS benefits, taxes, and the rest of the retirement income picture, so the decision is made with the whole plan in view rather than in isolation.
If you are approaching this decision and want a clearer sense of your options, we would be glad to talk it through. Schedule a conversation with our team.
Disclosure: The information presented is believed to be current. It should not be viewed as personalized investment advice. All expressions of opinion reflect the judgment of the authors on the date of publication and may change in response to market conditions. You should consult with a professional advisor before implementing any strategies discussed. Content should not be viewed as an offer to buy or sell any of the securities mentioned or as legal or tax advice. You should always consult an attorney or tax professional regarding your specific legal or tax situation. Estate planning, tax, pension, FRS, and Social Security rules are subject to change at any time.
Palm Wealth Partners is not engaged in the practice of law or accounting and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Social Security Administration or the Florida Retirement System (FRS). All investments and strategies have the potential for profit or loss. Different types of investments involve higher and lower levels of risk. There is no guarantee that a specific investment or strategy will be suitable or profitable for an investor’s portfolio. There are no assurances that an investor’s portfolio will match or exceed any particular benchmark. Asset allocation, rebalancing, and diversification will not necessarily improve an investor’s returns and cannot eliminate the risk of investment losses. Social Security, Medicare, Internal Revenue Service and other state and Federal rules and regulations are subject to change at any time. Always consult with your local Social Security office before acting upon any information provided herein that pertains to Social Security and/or Medicare.
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