By Kristine de Leon
oregonlive.com
(TNS)
For many Americans, retirement and Social Security seem inseparable.
They don’t have to be.
That is one of the biggest misconceptions Kara Smith encounters as a wealth management advisor with Northwestern Mutual in Oregon. Many people assume they should begin collecting Social Security when they stop working, she said, even though the two decisions can be years apart.
“The day you start Social Security and the day you retire do not have to be the same day,” Smith said. “They often aren’t.”
The choice can shape someone’s finances for the rest of their life.
Social Security is already a major source of income for older Oregonians. About 769,000 retired Oregon workers received benefits at the end of 2025, averaging roughly $2,080 a month, according to The Oregonian/OregonLive’s analysis of Social Security Administration data. About 90% of Oregonians 65 and older received some type of Social Security benefit.
Workers can generally start collecting retirement benefits at 62. But claiming before full retirement age permanently reduces the monthly payment.
Waiting increases it. After full retirement age, benefits generally grow 8% for each year someone waits to claim, until 70. Waiting beyond 70 provides no additional increase.
Smith describes the trade-off simply: “smaller sooner or larger later.”
Americans are increasingly waiting longer to claim About 24% of retired-worker awardees who became entitled to Social Security benefits in 2024 did so at 62, according to Social Security Administration data. Twenty years earlier, more than half did. The average age at entitlement rose from about 63 to 65 over the same period.
But a bigger check doesn’t necessarily make waiting the right choice.
Someone who needs Social Security to cover living expenses may have little choice but to claim at 62. Those with savings, pensions or other income may be able to wait.
Even that distinction can be too simple.
Research suggests the usual Social Security math can miss what people give up by waiting, including the chance to retire sooner, spend more during healthier years or avoid drawing down their savings. Claiming earlier can make sense under some circumstances, even though it locks in a smaller monthly benefit.
Retirement and Social Security follow different clocks
Several milestones crowd the years around retirement.
Social Security retirement benefits become available at 62. Medicare eligibility generally begins at 65. Full Social Security retirement age is 67 for people born in 1960 or later. Social Security benefits can keep growing until 70.
Smith said people often treat those milestones as fixed decision points.
“You can do it anytime in that range,” she said. “It’s not like those are your only three options.”
A worker could retire at 65, enroll in Medicare and wait until 70 to claim Social Security, she said. Another could start collecting benefits and keep working.
Working longer can also increase someone’s Social Security benefit. Social Security bases retirement benefits on a worker’s 35 highest-earning years, so additional work can replace years with lower or no earnings. Those who collect Social Security while working before full retirement age may have some benefits temporarily withheld if their earnings exceed federal limits.
Someone with enough savings could retire years before claiming social security. But delaying benefits sometimes means delaying retirement itself, potentially shortening the years to enjoy it.
The case for waiting and for claiming sooner
For people born in 1960 or later, claiming at 67 pays their full Social Security retirement benefit. Waiting until 70 raises the monthly benefit to 124% of that amount.
The larger payment lasts for life and gets the same annual cost-of-living increases as other Social Security benefits.
Smith said the extra guaranteed income can matter most later in retirement, when going back to work may not be an option and people may want to depend less on their investments.
“It’s a very personal decision,” she said.
But waiting means giving something up in return. Those who delay from 62 to 70 pass up eight years of payments for a larger monthly check later.
One common way to compare the options is to look at the break-even age, or how long someone would have to live before the bigger checks make up for the payments they decided to forego. The longer someone lives, the more time they have to come out ahead from the higher monthly benefit.
For many retirees, the break-even point falls somewhere in their late 70s or early 80s, though the exact age depends on when they claim and how the calculation is done.
But the math only goes so far. Investment returns, taxes and how someone pays for retirement can change the financial picture. Then there are factors harder to put a number on. Someone may value retiring sooner, traveling while they’re healthier or simply having more money to spend earlier in retirement.
Derek Tharp, an associate professor of finance at the University of Southern Maine, examined those trade-offs in a recent study. His research found that the more someone valued retiring sooner, the more appealing it became to claim Social Security earlier. When retiring sooner wasn’t a priority, waiting until 70 generally came out ahead.
The study doesn’t conclude that people should claim earlier. Instead, it shows why the biggest possible Social Security check isn’t necessarily the best choice for everyone.
Tharp suggests thinking about the decision another way: “How would you feel about spending from your savings for up to eight years before Social Security starts?”
How savings can change the decision
For people who can afford to wait, the choice may come down to whether they are willing to spend their savings while delaying Social Security.
Someone with enough money set aside can retire and use those savings to cover expenses for several years while waiting for a larger benefit. But it also means watching a nest egg built over decades shrink.
Research suggests many retirees are reluctant to do that. One study found retirees spent about 80% of the guaranteed income they received, but only about half of what they could afford to withdraw from savings and investments each year.
That reluctance may help explain why some people claim Social Security even when they have enough savings to wait. It provides predictable income without requiring larger withdrawals from retirement accounts.
Waiting offers a different trade-off. Smith said a larger Social Security benefit can provide more guaranteed income later in life, when returning to work may no longer be realistic. It can also reduce how much retirees need to rely on investments and the stock market, she said.
Couples have more to consider
For married couples, one spouse’s decision about when to claim Social Security can affect the other’s income.
Smith calls retirement a “team sport.” She said spouses may have very different earnings histories, especially if one spent years out of the workforce raising children or caring for family. Their ages, health, pensions and savings can differ, too.
Those differences can matter when one spouse dies. The survivor generally can’t collect both full benefits and may instead get a survivor benefit based on the other spouse’s earnings. If the higher earner waited to claim Social Security, that can mean a bigger benefit for the surviving spouse.
Smith said delaying benefits can be especially important when spouses have a significant age gap or when the surviving spouse will depend heavily on Social Security.
Before deciding when to claim
People can use the Social Security Administration’s online benefits calculator to see how claiming at different ages would change their monthly benefit.
Taxes can also affect how much they keep. Depending on their income, retirees may have to pay federal income tax on up to 85% of their Social Security benefits.
But maximizing a monthly Social Security check isn’t always the same as maximizing retirement satisfaction.
“Think back to what’s really important to you, not to what people tell you you should be doing,” Smith said. “Use that as your guiding light for decision making with money and with your time.”
Photo credit: Markus Winkler/Unsplash
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©2026 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit oregonlive.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency LLC.
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