Free tool — for anyone deciding when to claim Social Security
Social Security Claiming-Age Table
Your claiming age is the age you start Social Security — anywhere from 62 to 70 — and it sets the size of every check you are ever paid. This free spreadsheet builds the table that shows the difference, from two things you type: your date of birth, and the monthly figure your own statement shows at full retirement age. It never estimates a benefit for you. For each of the nine ages it gives the first month a check could be paid, how many months early or late that is, what share of your full benefit it comes to, the monthly amount, and the total paid by 80, 85 or 90. Nothing you type leaves your computer — it is a file you download and open, not a website you fill in.
Take it with you — free, no signup
Direct download. No email, no account — just the file.
What it does
- Gives one row per claiming age from 62 to 70: the first month a check could be paid, how many months early or late that is, the share of your full benefit, the monthly amount and a full year of checks.
- Works out your full retirement age: the age at which the figure on your statement is paid in full, 66 to 67 in two-month steps depending on your birth year (POMS RS 00615.003).
- Reads your birth date the way Social Security does — you attain an age the day before your birthday (POMS GN 00302.400) — which moves a January 1 birthday into the previous year's row.
- Applies the early-retirement reduction: 5/9 of 1% a month for the first 36 months before full retirement age, and 5/12 of 1% a month beyond that (POMS RS 00615.101).
- Adds the delayed retirement credits for waiting past full retirement age — 2/3 of 1% a month, 8% a year (POMS RS 00615.692) — which stop at age 70 (RS 00615.690).
- Rounds the way a check is rounded: down to the dime when the reduction or credit is applied, then down to the whole dollar for the amount actually paid.
- Runs each of those ages out to three lifespans — totals if you live to 80, 85 or 90 — and marks in gold the claiming age that comes out ahead for each one.
- Names every one of those rules on its own tab with the section of SSA's POMS manual it comes from, so you can check the arithmetic against the source rather than trust it.
- Opens pre-filled with a fictional person, so every cell is computing the moment you open the file — replace the cream cells with your own figures.
- Stays on one person's own retirement benefit, at the amount you type and before tax, with no cost-of-living increases added — break-even, a cost-of-living assumption and the couple's half of the decision (spousal, survivor and the 81-pair grid) are the paid workbook.
Related reading
- What is full retirement age? Why your birth year, not your choice, sets the age every other age is measured against.
- What is a delayed retirement credit? The 2/3 of 1% a month this table adds for every month you wait past full retirement age.
- Where-to-Retire Scorer The other half of the question: where to spend those years. Also free.
- Templates for retirees Everything else on the shelf for the retirement years.
Own it, don't rent it
Deciding as a couple, or want to see how long the answer holds?
This free table answers the question for one person. Most people are not deciding alone, and the two decisions are tangled: one person's claiming age sets the spousal top-up the other can get, and the higher earner's age sets what the one left behind is paid for the rest of their life. The full Social Security Claiming-Age Calculator scores all 81 ways two people could time their claims as household lifetime totals with the spousal top-up and the survivor step-up counted, then tests your plan against 49 combinations of death ages — a seven-by-seven grid from 70 to 100, with five strategies scored across all of them. It adds a break-even between any two claiming ages, a cost-of-living assumption you set, a trust-fund what-if, an estimate of what the earnings test holds back if you claim before full retirement age while still working, 16 cited rules, a 14-page guide and a worksheet of 14 questions to take to a financial professional. Eleven tabs, plus a ready-made Google Sheets copy you open with one click — bought once.
A one-time purchase you keep and re-run whenever a new statement arrives — no subscription, and no account that stops working when you stop paying.
Education and arithmetic, not financial, tax or legal advice. This table never estimates your benefit — it works from the figure you type in, so it is only as right as your statement and your earnings record. It covers one person's own retirement benefit at the amount you type, before tax, and leaves out cost-of-living increases, taxes, Medicare premiums, the earnings test, and spousal, survivor, divorced-spouse, children's and disability benefits. It is built for people born January 2, 1943 or later. The sample person is fictional and every figure attached to them is invented. Ardent Workshop LLC is a private company and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to the Social Security Administration — check your own figures at ssa.gov and with a qualified professional before you act on them. Free to use; please don't resell or redistribute.