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Social Security Financial Planner

Visualize the financial impact of different claiming strategies and assumptions.

Before you rely on this comparison

This is a narrow comparison of claiming at 65, 66, or 67 only — it doesn't ask your birth year or full retirement age (FRA), so it can't tell you your FRA or compare ages 62–64 or 68–70.
Enter all three monthly benefit amounts on the same dollar basis (e.g. all from one SSA estimate screen, in today's dollars). The model applies annual COLA starting only once each strategy begins paying, so mixing bases (e.g. one already-inflated future amount with two today's-dollar amounts) will skew the comparison.
"Other Income" here is treated as unconditional cash — it does not model Social Security's retirement earnings test, which can withhold benefits from wage/self-employment income before your FRA. If you plan to work while claiming before FRA, this comparison can overstate the early-claiming strategy.
Break-even ages are shown to the month, but the model only computes one balance per year and interpolates — treat the month figure as an approximate range, not a precise date.
This isn't tax, Medicare, spousal/survivor, or investment advice, and inputs aren't validated beyond basic slider bounds — double-check anything you type or paste in.

Core Assumptions

Project Until Age

General Inflation Rate (%)

Annual SS COLA (%)

Monthly Benefit Amounts ($)

Age 65

Age 66

Age 67

Financial Events

Inflate Spending & Income

Annual Spending

Extra Annual Income

Investment Return

Advanced Yearly Inputs

Yearly Advanced Inputs

Treat inputs as today's dollars

Age	Spend ($)	Income ($)	Return (%)

Chart 1: Cumulative Modeled Surplus/Shortfall (Nominal)

Shows projected cumulative surplus (or shortfall) vs. a $0 starting point at age 65, in future dollars — not a real account or net-worth balance. See the notes below the results for what this can and can't tell you.

Chart 2: Cumulative Surplus/Shortfall (Inflation-Adjusted)

Shows the purchasing power of the cumulative surplus/shortfall in today's dollars (age 65 dollars).

Note: because spending, other income, and investment returns are applied identically to every claiming strategy here, this break-even age is always the same as Chart 1's — it's the same comparison in today's dollars, not independent confirmation.