When should I claim Social Security?

Claim early and you collect smaller checks for longer; claim late and larger checks for fewer years. For a single person, the break-even age usually lands around 80–83. Live past it and delaying won; don't and claiming early did. Since a 65-year-old woman in good health has roughly even odds of reaching her late 80s, delaying is often — not always — the mathematically favored bet.

Delayed benefits also carry two quiet advantages the break-even math understates: they're inflation-adjusted for life (a bigger base compounds the COLA), and they're a hedge against outliving your savings — the one risk a portfolio can't diversify away.

When one spouse dies, the survivor keeps the larger of the two benefits. That makes the higher earner's claiming age a decision about survivor income — delaying the bigger benefit buys longevity insurance for whichever of you lives longest, while the lower earner's timing matters much less. A common pattern that scores well in simulations: the lower earner claims early for cash flow while the higher earner delays toward 70.

Delaying isn't a universal rule. Claiming earlier can make sense when health or family history points to shorter longevity, when you need the income to avoid selling investments in a down market, or when bridging from savings would drain accounts you'll need for flexibility later. The point isn't that 70 always wins — it's that the decision deserves a model, not a default.

This is exactly the kind of decision a simulation handles better than a rule of thumb: evaluate every claiming-age combination for both spouses, weighted by realistic longevity, and look at the break-even visually before deciding.