Social Security Planning
Gain clarity on Social Security to help you feel better prepared—today and down the road.
Maximize your Social Security benefits
Claiming your benefits is only part of what Social Security has to offer. Developing a thoughtful strategy can lead to meaningful increases in your monthly benefits.
Consider these potential factors that may impact you and your family:
Your age when you start collecting benefits
Your marital status
Working while collecting benefits before your Full Retirement Age (FRA)
While each person's situation is unique, it's important to understand your options—and any rules that apply—to take full advantage of your benefits.
What's your Full Retirement Age?
Your monthly benefit is calculated using your Full Retirement Age (sometimes referred to as FRA) based on the year you were born. Visit the Social Security Administration website for more information about other factors that may affect your benefits.
| If you were born... | Your full retirement age is... |
| Before 1937 | 65 |
| Between 1938 and 19421 | 65+ |
| Between 1943 and 1954 | 66 |
| Between 1955 and 19592 | 66+ |
| After 1960 | 67 |
Source: Social Security Administration.
1For people born between 1938 and 1942, FRA is between age 65 and 2 months and age 65 and 10 months, depending on birth year.
2For people born between 1955 and 1959, FRA is between age 66 and 2 months and age 66 and 10 months, depending on birth year.
Why is it important to optimize your benefits?
You can start collecting benefits at age 62, but that doesn't mean you should. Each year you can wait could increase your annual benefit amount by 7% to 8%, up to age 70. That could make a difference of thousands of dollars for your retirement income.
Three ways to consider optimizing your Social Security benefits:
Put in more time
As benefits are based on your 35 highest earning years, a few more years of working could increase your total benefit.
Wait to start withdrawing benefits
If you don’t need the money, delaying taking benefits could result in a permanent increase in your monthly payments.
Know your tax implications
Your total income, including IRA distributions, determines how much of your benefit is taxable, so speak to a tax professional to understand your options.
Customize your strategy
Our Social Security Optimizer can provide you with strategies to help maximize your lifetime Social Security benefits. In just minutes, this guided, step-by-step approach leverages existing rules to help you make the most of your benefits with:
- Clear explanations of how Social Security benefits really work.
- Robust analysis comparing claiming strategies according to different timelines.
- Claiming strategies designed to fit your situation based on the info you provide.
Gain clarity with expert insights
Explore valuable perspective on the markets, investing strategies, and personal finance.
See how Social Security fits into your plan
Develop an optimization strategy
The Social Security Optimizer can help you estimate the optimal age to start collecting benefits.
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The information provided in the Social Security Optimizer tool is for general and educational purposes only, and is not intended to provide legal, tax or investment advice. This tool allows you to explore hypothetical scenarios for claiming social security benefits. Results are intended as an aid, are not guaranteed, and should not be your only source of information when making financial decisions. Please consider your own circumstances before deciding which claiming strategy is appropriate and seek independent legal, financial and tax advice before making any decisions. Other T. Rowe Price educational tools or advice services may use different assumptions and methods and may yield different results.
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