Retire at 62 vs 67 Calculator: Compare Your Odds

If you claim Social Security at 62 instead of 67, your monthly check is about 30% smaller, and it stays smaller for the rest of your life. That's usually the first thing people see when they look for a retire at 62 vs 67 calculator, and it matters. It's also only half the answer. The other half is whether your savings can cover five extra years without a paycheck, through whatever the markets and your health do along the way. This guide covers both: the Social Security math, and how to work out the odds that your money lasts.

The short answer: 62 vs 67 vs 70 at a glance

Suppose your full retirement age (FRA) is 67. This is the age when Social Security pays 100% of the benefit you've earned. Claim earlier and you get less. Claim later and you get more.

Percentages are from Richify's Social Security calculator comparing 62, 67 and 70. The dollar column is simple arithmetic to show the gap. It isn't a forecast of your benefit.

To give a sense of the ceiling: Clark.com's rundown of Social Security changes for 2026 puts the maximum monthly benefit at about $4,152 at full retirement age and about $5,181 at 70. Your own figure is on your my Social Security statement at ssa.gov, so check it there.

Where the 30% comes from

The reduction isn't one flat penalty. It builds up month by month:

• First 36 months early: 5/9 of 1% per month, which adds up to 20%
• Each month beyond 36: 5/12 of 1% per month. Claiming at 62 adds 24 of these months, for another 10%

That comes to 30% in total, as explained in Nasdaq's look at whether 62 is the right age to claim. It also means you don't have to choose between exactly 62 and 67. Each month you wait raises the check a little.

Fewer people claim at 62 than they used to

Claiming at 62 used to be the default. According to the Bipartisan Policy Center's analysis of claiming trends, 60% of people claimed at 62 in 1998, and nearly 80% claimed before full retirement age. By 2022, only 29% claimed at 62 and 61% claimed before FRA.

That doesn't make 62 the wrong choice. It means more people are treating the claiming age as a real decision. That's sensible, because it's a decision you mostly can't undo.

Break-even age: useful, but it's one number

Most calculators that rank for this search give you a break-even age. That's the age at which waiting finally pays out more in total than claiming early.

• 62 vs. 67: about 78 years, 8 months
• 62 vs. 70: about 80 years, 5 months
• 67 vs. 70: about 82.5

The first two come from Clark's Social Security breakeven calculator. The third comes from the Nasdaq article above. These sources also say break-even ages stay about the same whatever your benefit amount.

The catch is that break-even only helps if you know how long you'll live. You don't. Nobody does.

The Social Security Administration's own planning guidance says that about one in three 65-year-olds may live to at least 90 (SSA, Retirement Information for Medicare Beneficiaries, 2026). If you're in that group, you'll be well past the 62-vs-67 break-even point, and the larger check will have been worth it many times over. If you're not, claiming early may have been the better deal.

Break-even also ignores how your Social Security choice affects your savings. That's the question most searchers actually need answered.

Retiring at 62 is not the same as claiming at 62

Most results treat these as one decision. They're two separate ones:

1. When you stop working
2. When you start Social Security

You can stop working at 62 and still wait to claim. In the gap, you live on savings. That's sometimes called a "bridge." The trade-off: you draw down your portfolio faster at first, and in return you get a larger Social Security check for life. That check also gets annual cost-of-living adjustments (COLA). For 2026, the COLA was 2.8%, about $56 a month for the average retired worker, according to The Motley Fool's coverage of 2026 Social Security changes.

Your plan might also mix part-time work with early benefits. If so, watch for the earnings test. For 2026:

• If you're under FRA all year, Social Security withholds $1 for every $2 you earn above $24,480.
• In the year you reach FRA, it withholds $1 for every $3 above $65,160.

Sources: Clark.com and The Motley Fool, 2026 Social Security changes.

If you claim at 62 and keep earning a good wage, you could see much of your check held back. It's worth modelling before you commit.

Three risks that hit a 62-year-old retiree harder

Retiring five years earlier doesn't just mean five more years of spending. It also exposes you to risks for longer.

1. A longer retirement than the rules of thumb assume

Morningstar's 2025 research puts the safe starting withdrawal rate at 3.9% (Morningstar, The State of Retirement Income 2025, Dec 2025). That's the rate at which money is still left in 90% of simulated outcomes over a 30-year retirement.

If you retire at 62 and plan to 95, that's 33 years. It's longer than the period the 3.9% figure was tested on. That doesn't mean the rate stops working. It means you should test your own numbers over your own time frame instead of borrowing someone else's. The plan you build here runs to 95 by default, and you can push it further.

2. Bad market years at the start

When you retire matters as much as your average return. If markets fall sharply in the first few years, you're selling investments at low prices to pay the bills. Those losses don't get the chance to recover. This is called sequence-of-returns risk. A calculator that assumes a steady average return every year can't show it, because in that model every year is an average year.

Retiring at 62 also means five fewer years of contributions and five more years of withdrawals. That can make you more exposed to a bad start.

3. Health care, before and after 65

Medicare usually begins at 65. Retire at 62 and you need to cover roughly three years of health insurance yourself. The cost varies a lot by where you live, your age and your health, so get real quotes rather than guessing.

After 65, costs don't go away. Fidelity estimates that a 65-year-old retiring in 2025 will spend $172,500 on Medicare premiums, deductibles and prescriptions over retirement, and that figure leaves out long-term care entirely (Fidelity Investments, 2025 Retiree Health Care Cost Estimate, Jul 2025). The 2026 Medicare Part B premium also rose $17.90, which took back part of that year's COLA, according to The Motley Fool.

So in the plan you build here, the engine charges Medicare premiums and income-based surcharges year by year, not as one flat guess.

How a retire at 62 vs 67 calculator should actually work

A good retire at 62 vs 67 calculator shouldn't give you a single projected balance. It should give you odds.

That's what Monte Carlo simulation does. In plain terms: it doesn't assume the market returns the same average every year. It runs your plan through many possible futures. Some have strong decades, some have weak ones, and some start with a crash. Then it counts how many of those futures still have money left at the end.

Monte Climb runs your savings, age and monthly spending through 1,000 simulated futures and tells you how many stay funded. If you get 850 out of 1,000, that's an 85% success rate. It's a probability, not a promise. It's also a much more honest way to compare a retirement at 62 with one at 67 than a straight-line projection.

What you need to run your numbers

Three numbers:

1. Your age
2. What you've saved for retirement
3. What you spend each month

The third one trips people up. EBRI's 2025 Retirement Confidence Survey found that only 52% of workers have estimated the monthly income they'll need in retirement (EBRI/Greenwald, Retirement Confidence Survey 2025, Fact Sheet 3). The other 48% are guessing. If you haven't done it, go through a few months of bank statements before you run anything. Your monthly spending affects the result more than almost any other input.

How to compare 62 and 67

• Run your current numbers and note the success rate.
• Ask William, the AI planner, "Retire at 62?" You can talk to him like you would a friend, and he shows his work. That means you can see what's pushing your odds up or down.
• Follow up with "Am I on track?" or ask about a sustainable spend if the 62 result is lower than you'd like. Sometimes a small cut in monthly spending moves your odds more than working longer would.
• Compare against your break-even age. If your odds look strong either way, the claiming decision becomes mostly a question of how long you expect to live and how much you value having more income now.

The calculator runs in your browser, and nothing is saved until you say so. It's planning software, not advice. For tax questions, spousal and survivor benefits, or anything involving a pension, check with ssa.gov and a qualified professional.

The bottom line

The Social Security side of 62 vs. 67 is easy to calculate: about 30% less if you claim at 62, with a break-even point in your late 70s. The harder question is whether your savings can cover the gap across a retirement that may run past 90, with health care costs and bad market years along the way. You can't answer that with one average. You need to see the range of outcomes.

Three numbers. 1,000 futures. One clear answer.

Show my answer →

Try the full app for 7 days for $1 at Monte Climb.

Frequently asked questions

How much less Social Security do you get at 62 vs 67?

If your full retirement age is 67, claiming at 62 gets you 70% of your full benefit, a 30% cut that lasts for life. If you wait until 70, you get about 124% of your full benefit.

What is the break-even age for claiming Social Security at 62 vs 67?

Clark.com's breakeven calculator puts it at about 78 years and 8 months. Live past that and waiting until 67 pays more in total. The break-even age stays about the same whatever your benefit amount.

Can I work and collect Social Security at 62?

Yes, but the earnings test applies. In 2026, if you're under full retirement age all year, Social Security withholds $1 for every $2 you earn above $24,480. In the year you reach full retirement age, it withholds $1 for every $3 above $65,160.

Is it better to retire at 62 or 67?

There's no single right answer. It depends on your savings, your monthly spending, your health and how long you live. Comparing your odds is more useful than comparing averages: run both scenarios through many simulated futures and see how often your money lasts. Treat the result as a probability, not a promise, and not as personal advice.

Do I have to claim Social Security when I retire at 62?

No. Retiring and claiming are separate decisions. Some people stop working at 62, live on savings for a few years, and delay claiming to get a larger lifetime check. Whether that works for you depends on how well your savings can handle the faster early withdrawals.