Social Security Strategy
Claim early to replace SRS, or delay for a bigger check
Claiming Comparison & Breakeven
Every year you wait to claim Social Security past 62, your monthly benefit grows: claiming at 70 pays roughly 77% more per month than claiming at 62. The 62-vs-70 breakeven lands near age 80 no matter the size of your check.
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Enter the monthly benefit you expect at 62 to compare claiming ages and your breakeven.
Monthly Benefit by Claiming Age
| Claiming Age | % of FRA Benefit | Monthly Benefit |
|---|
Breakeven: Age 62 vs Age 70
Calculating…
Cumulative Lifetime Benefits by Claiming Age
Estimate only. Claiming-age factors come from SSA and assume a Full Retirement Age of 67 (born 1960 or later); the breakeven compares pre-tax dollars and ignores inflation, COLAs, and the time value of money. Your official benefit comes from SSA based on your earnings record.
Age 62
Replaces the SRS immediately, easing TSP drawdown in your early 60s. Permanently reduced: about 70% of your full-retirement-age amount.
Age 67
You receive 100% of your calculated benefit, but you fund a 5-year gap (62–67) from your TSP or other savings.
Age 70
The highest possible check: 124% of your full-retirement-age amount. You fund an 8-year gap (62–70) from savings.
Getting the age-62 estimate right
The headline age-62 figure on your SSA statement assumes you keep working and earning until 62. If you retire for good before that, your earnings record stops growing, so the check you actually collect will be lower (typically by 10–15%, a smaller decrease than the SRS proration, because the actual benefit formula weights your first dollars of earnings most heavily). To refine your figure:
- Separating soon, no second career: in the my Social Security calculator, set your average future annual salary to $0. SSA posts each year's wages the following year, so the result can run slightly low.
- Still years out, or planning a second career: use SSA’s Online Calculator, which accepts earnings through your planned last year of work. Second-career wages keep your record growing, landing your real figure between the $0-salary result and the headline.
The Age 62 Hand-Off
Because controllers retire under special provisions, the government pays a Special Retirement Supplement (SRS) that approximates Social Security until age 62. The month you turn 62, the supplement permanently ends, and a cash-flow decision starts: claim Social Security right away to replace the lost income, or delay to grow your monthly check while bridging from your TSP or other savings. How the SRS bridge works & ends →
The breakeven concept
Delay to 70 and you forgo 8 years of payments (62–70) in exchange for larger checks afterward. The breakeven point, where the bigger checks make up for the missed ones, is typically around age 80 to 82.
- If life expectancy is shorter, claiming at 62 may yield more total dollars.
- If it's longer, delaying to 70 may yield far more.
Two Things the Breakeven Leaves Out
Your benefits are taxable
Up to 85% of your Social Security is subject to federal income tax once your provisional income (roughly AGI + tax-exempt interest + half your Social Security) clears the IRC § 86 thresholds. With a FERS annuity plus TSP withdrawals, a retired controller almost always lands in the 85% tier. Some states tax it too. The chart shows pre-tax dollars. Estimate the real bite →
The earnings test can claw it back before FRA
Claim before your Full Retirement Age and keep working, and Social Security withholds $1 for every $2 you earn over the annual exempt amount ($24,480 in 2026). It isn't lost forever (your benefit is recomputed upward at FRA), but it reshapes the early-claiming cash flow. The test eases in the calendar year you reach FRA ($1 withheld per $3 over a much higher limit) and ends the month you hit FRA. (Separate from the SRS earnings test.)
Two Bigger-Picture Factors
Married? You're choosing the survivor benefit too
When one spouse dies, the survivor keeps the larger of the two Social Security benefits; the smaller one stops. Delaying the higher earner's benefit toward 70 doesn't just raise your own check. It permanently raises the survivor benefit your spouse would live on, often for many years. That protection is often the real reason to delay, more than your own breakeven. One nuance: while you're both alive, a spouse claiming on your record tops out at 50% of your FRA amount. Delayed credits past 67 don't raise it; they carry into the survivor benefit only. (42 U.S.C. § 402(b)–(f).)
Watch IRMAA when you bridge with TSP
Delaying Social Security to 67–70 while funding the gap with large TSP withdrawals raises your MAGI, which can trigger IRMAA: the income-related surcharge on Medicare Part B and D premiums that starts at 65. IRMAA looks at your tax return from two years prior, so a heavy-withdrawal year at 63–64 can raise your Medicare premiums at 65–66. Plan the drawdown with the IRMAA brackets in mind. (42 U.S.C. § 1395r(i); appeal a life-changing event on form SSA-44.)
Next Steps
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Create your account on SSA.gov
SSA projects your benefit from your actual lifetime earnings record.
Check My SSA Profile -
Model the gap
Confirm your TSP balance at 62 can sustain a higher withdrawal rate if you delay Social Security to 67 or 70; the Income Timeline models exactly that gap.
Heard about the Social Security Fairness Act repealing WEP and GPO in January 2025? Ignore the noise. Those rules never applied to FERS controllers (you pay Social Security tax on every FAA paycheck), so nothing changes for you.