Is it better to take Social Security at 62 or 70?

In this test, if you spend the early checks, waiting until 70 came out ahead once you passed age 78.4 to 79.0, and about 2 in 3 men and 3 in 4 women who reach 62 live past that. The check at 70 was 77.1% bigger for life.

Can I take Social Security at 62 and invest it?

In this test, investing every early check in the S&P 500 ran out at 82.4 to 85.4 for people who turned 62 from 1996 to 2000. For those who turned 62 from 2001 to 2010 it was still ahead in October 2026, with up to $652,688 left in the pile (2008).

How much bigger is Social Security at 70 than at 62?

For someone born in 1960 or later, the check at 62 is 70% of the full benefit and at 70 it is 124%: $1,400 against $2,480 a month on a $2,000 full benefit, 77.1% bigger for life, before cost-of-living raises.

What return do you need to beat waiting until 70?

With cost-of-living raises at 2.52% a year, the invested early checks need a steady 5.93% a year if you live to 85 and 7.71% to 90, every year with no bad ones. The S&P 500 did 10.21% a year from 1996 to 2025, but not in a straight line.

What if I keep my early Social Security checks in cash?

Kept in T-bills, the early checks ran out at age 79.4 to 80.5 for 14 of 15 people in this test. Cash bought about one extra year over spending them.

Test #8 · Published October 25, 2026

Take Social Security at 62 and invest it, or wait until 70? We tested 15 real retirement years

By JJ, host of The $10K Test · October 25, 2026 · How the tests work

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My verdict: PARTLY TRUE.

The short answer: It depends on what you do with the early checks, and on the year you turn 62. If you spend them, as most people do, the person who waited until 70 catches up at about age 79 (78.4 to 79.0 in this test), and most 62-year-olds live past that. Investing every early check in the S&P 500 beat waiting so far for people who turned 62 from 2001 to 2010, but ran out at 82.4 to 85.4 for those who turned 62 from 1996 to 2000.

The key numbers

Full benefit of $2,000 a month: claim at 62 and get $1,400; wait until 70 and get $2,480, a check 77.1% bigger for life.
Spend the early checks: the waiter catches up at 78.4 to 79.0. About 2 in 3 men and 3 in 4 women who reach 62 live past that age.
Turned 62 in 1996 and invested every check: the pile ran out in December 2016, at 82.9. In 2026 the waiter gets $5,239 a month, the early claimer $2,957.
Turned 62 in 2008 and invested every check: $652,688 left in October 2026 at age 80.75, while spending as much as the waiter.
Keeping the early checks in T-bills (safe cash) only pushed the catch-up out to 79.4 to 80.5.

The claim

Take Social Security early, and invest it if you don't need it. The Ramsey Solutions website says: "Financial expert Dave Ramsey says it makes sense (in most cases) to take the money early and often." It adds that "Social Security payments die when you die, so you might as well get all you can get as fast as you can get it" and that "if you don't need that Social Security money, you can always invest it in good growth stock mutual funds and just let it grow." The other side is common planner advice: wait until 70 for the biggest check.

Source: Ramsey Solutions, full retirement age article, published September 14, 2022, updated April 21, 2025

How we tested it

Today's Social Security rules applied to history: a person turns 62 in January of each year from 1996 to 2010 (15 people), with a full benefit at 67 of $2,000 a month.
Plan A claims at 62: $1,400 a month, 70% of the full benefit. Plan B waits until 70: $2,480, 124%. Every cost-of-living raise is the real one from Social Security's table.
Plan A invests every check until 70 in the S&P 500 with dividends reinvested (the SPY fund). We also tested keeping the checks in 3-month Treasury bills, and spending them.
Same spending for both: before 70, neither spends any Social Security. From 70, both spend Plan B's bigger check, and Plan A takes the difference from its pile. When the pile can't cover it, it has run out: that's the break-even age.
Odds of living to each age: Social Security's 2023 period life table.
No taxes, no fees, and the person has stopped working: the best case for investing. Real prices through October 2026.

What is the break-even age for Social Security at 62 vs 70?

If you spend the early checks, which is what most people do, the person who waited catches up at age 78.4 to 79.0 (all 15 people, real cost-of-living raises). Without those raises, the textbook math gives 80.4.

Social Security's life table says about 2 in 3 men (65-67%) and 3 in 4 women (75-76%) who reach 62 live past that age. By 90, the person who turned 62 in 1996 and waited had collected $901,404 in checks, against $655,243 for the early claimer.

Keeping the early checks in T-bills instead only pushed the cash out to age 79.4 to 80.5 (14 of 15 people; the 2010 person is 78.75 and not there yet). Cash bought about one extra year.

What if you take Social Security at 62 and invest it in stocks?

It depended on the year you turned 62. Turned 62 from 1996 to 2000: the pile ran out at 82.4 to 85.4, and after that the waiter's check is 77% bigger for life. Turned 62 from 2001 to 2010: still ahead as of October 2026, from $79,290 left (2001, age 87.75 and shrinking) to $652,688 left (2008, age 80.75), on top of the same income as the waiter.

The 1996 person, the only one with 30 years of data, put in $146,386 of checks and had $169,129 at 70. At 75, after the 2008 crash, the pile was down to $91,026, and it ran out in December 2016 at 82.9. In 2026 the waiter gets $5,239 a month, the early claimer $2,957.

Scorecard: investing the early checks was ahead at 80 for all 13 people with data, at 85 for 4 of 8 (2000 only by $8,336, gone 5 months later), and at 90 for 0 of 3. Per $10,000 of early checks invested, the value at 70 ranged from $8,609 (2001) to $17,834 (2010).

Why did investing Social Security work for some years and not others?

The order of returns, not the average. The 1996 to 2000 people started drawing on the pile between February 2004 and February 2008, so the 2008 crash hit a pile they were already spending. The 2001 to 2010 people started drawing between February 2009 and February 2018, at or after the bottom. The 2001 person's pile was below what they put in at 70 ($126,556 against $147,012) and still lasted, so far, because the withdrawals began into the recovery.

The hurdle: with cost-of-living raises at their 1996 to 2025 average (2.52% a year), the early checks must earn a steady 7.71% a year (5.06% above inflation) to beat waiting if you live to 90, 5.93% to 85 and 8.65% to 95. Every year, no bad ones. The S&P 500 did 10.21% a year from 1996 to 2025, but not in a straight line; T-bills did 2.29%.

Does waiting until 70 raise a surviving spouse's Social Security?

For a married higher earner, yes. Social Security's handbook says a widow(er)'s benefit equals 100% of the deceased worker's full benefit plus any credits earned by waiting, and the benefit is capped for widow(er)s whose spouse filed early. This test did not model survivor benefits.

For a 62-year-old man and woman, the chance that at least one of them reaches 90 is 49.2%, and 85 is 74.4%.

Every early check invested in the S&P 500 (full benefit $2,000 a month): what happened
Turned 62	Pile at 70	Invested pile ran out	Oct 2026: age, pile left	Spend it: waiter catches up
1996	$169,129	age 82.92 (Dec 2016)	92.75, $0	age 78.42
1997	$169,215	age 82.42 (Jun 2017)	91.75, $0	age 78.42
1998	$171,546	age 82.75 (Oct 2018)	90.75, $0	age 78.42
1999	$190,008	age 83.75 (Oct 2020)	89.75, $0	age 78.42
2000	$193,312	age 85.42 (Jun 2023)	88.75, $0	age 78.50
2001	$126,556	not yet	87.75, $79,290	age 78.58
2002	$161,023	not yet	86.75, $323,662	age 78.75
2003	$179,306	not yet	85.75, $444,571	age 78.83
2004	$174,686	not yet	84.75, $517,796	age 78.92
2005	$195,801	not yet	83.75, $592,917	age 79.00
2006	$233,439	not yet	82.75, $623,264	age 79.00
2007	$249,350	not yet	81.75, $634,101	age 79.00
2008	$235,821	not yet	80.75, $652,688	age 78.92
2009	$238,438	not yet	79.75, $611,153	age 78.83
2010	$252,705	not yet	78.75, $539,687	age 78.67

From 70, the pile tops up the smaller early check to match the waiter's check. Pile at 70 is on the first trading day of that January. No taxes or fees. The 2001 to 2010 results are so far.

The verdict

PARTLY TRUE. Claiming at 62 and investing every check in stocks beat waiting for everyone who died before about 82, and so far for life for people who turned 62 from 2001 to 2010, who started drawing on the pile at or after the 2008 to 2009 bottom. It lost after 82 to 85 for people who turned 62 from 1996 to 2000. If you spend the checks or keep them in cash, waiting wins once you pass about 79 to 80, which most 62-year-olds do.

What this test leaves out

One country, one 30-year window, 15 overlapping start years. Only the 1996 to 1998 people have reached 90 in the data, and the 2001 to 2010 results are so far.
Best case for investing: no taxes on gains or on benefits, no fund fees beyond SPY's tiny one, no panic selling, 100% stocks. Federal income tax applies to benefits if combined income is over $25,000 (single) or $32,000 (joint).
The person is assumed not to be working. Under full retirement age, the 2026 limit is $24,480 of earnings, with $1 held back for every $2 above it.
Today's rules (70% at 62, 124% at 70) applied to people who really had full retirement ages of 65 to 66.
Survivor benefits and the trust fund shortfall (78% of benefits payable from late 2032, per the 2026 Trustees Report) were not modeled.

Data: S&P 500 total return (SPY) 1996 to Oct 2026; Social Security's real cost-of-living raises; no taxes, no fees. Every number on this page comes from the test results.

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Questions people ask

Is it better to take Social Security at 62 or 70?: In this test, if you spend the early checks, waiting until 70 came out ahead once you passed age 78.4 to 79.0, and about 2 in 3 men and 3 in 4 women who reach 62 live past that. The check at 70 was 77.1% bigger for life.
What is the break-even age for Social Security at 62 vs 70?: With real cost-of-living raises, 78.4 to 79.0 for people who turned 62 from 1996 to 2010 and spent the early checks. Without the raises, the textbook math gives 80.4.
Can I take Social Security at 62 and invest it?: In this test, investing every early check in the S&P 500 ran out at 82.4 to 85.4 for people who turned 62 from 1996 to 2000. For those who turned 62 from 2001 to 2010 it was still ahead in October 2026, with up to $652,688 left in the pile (2008).
How much bigger is Social Security at 70 than at 62?: For someone born in 1960 or later, the check at 62 is 70% of the full benefit and at 70 it is 124%: $1,400 against $2,480 a month on a $2,000 full benefit, 77.1% bigger for life, before cost-of-living raises.
What return do you need to beat waiting until 70?: With cost-of-living raises at 2.52% a year, the invested early checks need a steady 5.93% a year if you live to 85 and 7.71% to 90, every year with no bad ones. The S&P 500 did 10.21% a year from 1996 to 2025, but not in a straight line.
What if I keep my early Social Security checks in cash?: Kept in T-bills, the early checks ran out at age 79.4 to 80.5 for 14 of 15 people in this test. Cash bought about one extra year over spending them.

What's in the video

0:00 Intro
0:23 The claim
2:00 How we tested it
3:20 If you spend it
4:11 If you invest it
6:06 Why it happened
7:07 What to do instead
8:50 The verdict
9:18 Free weekly email + disclosure

Read the script of the video

The words JJ read on camera for this test. The final video may differ slightly.

Take Social Security at 62 and invest every check in the stock market. Turn 62 in 2008, and today you'd have about $650,000 more than if you had waited until 70. Turn 62 in 1996, same plan, and the money was gone before your eighty-third birthday. Today we test it on 30 years of real data.

I am JJ, and this is the 10K Test. Every week I take a piece of money advice everybody repeats and test it against real market history. Not opinions. What the money actually did. Today: when to take Social Security. It's one of the biggest money decisions you'll ever make. One side says take it early. The Ramsey Solutions website says Dave Ramsey thinks it makes sense, in most cases, to "take the money early and often." Social Security stops when you die, so get it while you can. And, quote, "if you don't need that Social Security money, you can always invest it in good growth stock mutual funds and just let it grow." The other side, which you've probably heard from a lot of financial planners: wait until 70 for the biggest check. Both sides sound sure. On this channel, 30 years of real numbers get the last word, good years and bad. If that's what you want, subscribe. Here are the official rules from Social Security. If you were born in 1960 or later, your full retirement age is 67. Claim at 62 and you get 70% of your full benefit. Wait until 70 and you get 124%. So if your full benefit is $2,000 a month, that's $1,400 at 62, or 2,480 at 70, plus cost-of-living raises either way. The check at 70 is about 77% bigger, for the rest of your life. So who's right? We tested it. Here's what happened.

Here's exactly what we did, so you can check it. We took a person whose full benefit would be $2,000 a month and applied today's rules to history. They turn 62 in January 1996. Then we did it again for someone turning 62 in 1997, and every year through 2010. 15 people. Every cost-of-living raise is the real one, from Social Security's own table. Plan A claims at 62 and invests every single check in the S&P 500, dividends reinvested, until 70. Plan B waits until 70. To make it fair, both people spend the same. Before 70, neither one spends any Social Security. From 70 on, both spend the bigger check, the one the waiter gets. Plan A gets the smaller check and takes the difference out of the pile. If the pile runs out, Plan A is stuck with the smaller check for life. That's the break-even age. Die before it, and Plan A leaves the pile to the kids. Live past it, and waiting wins every month after. If you'd rather live off your own savings from 62 to 70 and then take the bigger check, it's the same math. No taxes, no fees, and we assumed you've stopped working. That's the best case for investing. The data runs through October 2026.

First, what most people actually do: take it at 62 and spend it. Count the checks, and the waiter catches up at around 78 and a half to 79. The textbook math says a little over 80, but the waiter's checks come later, after more raises, so they catch up sooner. How likely are you to get there? According to Social Security's own life table, about 2 out of 3 men and 3 out of 4 women who reach 62 make it past that age. The person who turned 62 in 1996 is 92 today. By age 90, the waiter had collected about $900,000 in checks. The early claimer, about 655,000. And keeping the early checks in safe T-bills instead? That only pushed the break-even out to between 79 and a half and 80 and a half. Cash doesn't grow fast enough.

Now Dave's version. Invest every check. Start with the only person who has the full 30 years: turned 62 in January 1996. Over 8 years they invested about $146,000 of checks, right through the dot-com crash. At 70, the pile was worth about 169,000. Then they start topping up the smaller check. 4 years later, 2008 hits. At 75, the pile is down to about 91,000. In December 2016, at 82, it runs out. Today, at 92, the person who waited gets $5,239 a month. The person who claimed early gets 2,957. About 44% less, every month, for the rest of their life. Turned 62 in 2000? Gone at 85. Now look at the green line. Turned 62 in 2008. They invested right into the crash, bought cheap, and started spending the pile in 2016. Today, almost 81, they have about $653,000 left, and they're spending exactly as much as the waiter. Here's everybody. Turned 62 from 1996 through 2000: the pile ran out between 82 and 85. Turned 62 from 2001 through 2010: still ahead, so far. Even 2001, where the pile at 70 was worth less than the checks that went in, still has about $79,000 at 87. It's shrinking, though. In $10,000 terms: every $10,000 of early checks was worth anywhere from about 8,600 to about 17,800 by age 70, depending only on the year you turned 62. So here's the scorecard. Every one of the 13 people who reached 80 in our data was still ahead at 80. At 85, 4 out of 8. At 90, 0 out of 3.

Why did the same plan split in two? The first group started pulling from the pile between 2004 and 2008, right into the financial crisis. The lucky group started pulling in 2009 or later, at or after the bottom. Same lesson as our 8% episode: it's not the average return, it's the order. And here's a number you rarely see. To beat waiting, the early checks have to earn a steady return, every single year. With cost-of-living raises at their 30-year average of about 2 and a half percent: if you live to 85, you need about 6% a year. Live to 90, about 7.7% a year, with no bad years. That's about 5% more than inflation. Waiting gets you that with no stock market risk, as long as you're alive to collect it. The S&P 500 averaged about 10.2% a year over these 30 years. But not every year. T-bills averaged about 2.3. That's why cash lost, and why stocks won or lost depending on your timing.

So what should you do? Here's what the same data says. One: if you'll spend the early checks, which is most people, the question is simple. Do you expect to live past about 79? Most 62-year-olds do. Waiting wins. Two: if you're married and you're the bigger earner, this matters even more. When you die, your spouse can get your check, including the credits for waiting. Social Security says so in its own handbook. Claim early, and the survivor's check can be capped. And for a 62-year-old man and woman, the chance that at least one of them reaches 90 is about 1 in 2. Waiting is insurance for whoever lives longest. Three: if you're single, your health is poor, or you really need the money now, claiming early can be the right call. In our data, if you died before 80, claiming early and investing in stocks left more money every time. Four: if you do claim early and invest, it only worked here with 100% stocks and nerves of steel through every crash. And it still depended on the year you turned 62, which nobody gets to choose. A few things we left out. Taxes: Social Security says you'll owe federal income tax on your benefits if your combined income is over $25,000, single, or 32,000, married. Investment gains get taxed too. Work: if you claim before full retirement age and keep working, in 2026 Social Security holds back $1 for every two you earn over 24,480, and gives you credit for it later. And the trust fund: this year's trustees report says the retirement fund can pay full benefits until late 2032, then 78% unless Congress acts. We didn't model that.

So: take Social Security at 62 and invest it. Verdict: PARTLY TRUE. It worked if you really invested every check in stocks, and either died before your early eighties or happened to turn 62 at the right time. In our test, 5 of 15 people ran out between 82 and 85. The other 10 are still ahead, so far. But most people spend the checks. For them, waiting until 70 wins once you pass about 79. And most people do.

Every week I send a free email with the full numbers behind each test, the tables, the charts, and what we're testing next. Free weekly email at 10Ktest.com. And tell me in the comments what money advice you want tested next. This video is for education and entertainment, not personal financial advice. Your situation is different; talk to a professional before deciding when to claim Social Security. Disclosure: I'm not collecting Social Security yet. I don't own an S&P 500 index fund. I do own some individual stocks, including Apple, which is part of the S&P 500. Nobody paid for this video.

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Education and entertainment only. Not personal financial advice. Your situation is different; talk to a professional before deciding when to claim Social Security. Disclosure: I'm not collecting Social Security yet. I don't own an S&P 500 index fund. I do own some individual stocks, including Apple, which is part of the S&P 500. Nobody paid for this video.