Early Retirement Reduction Calculator: How Much Less at 62?
Starting Social Security before full retirement age reduces your own benefit by 5/9 of 1% for each of the first 36 months early and 5/12 of 1% for each month beyond that. With a full retirement age of 67, starting at 62 cuts it by up to 30%, to 70%. Spousal benefits are reduced faster, to as little as 32.5% of the worker’s full benefit, and survivor benefits start at 71.5% at age 60. The reduction is permanent.
Enter your birth date and the month you’d start to see your exact reduction and the amount at every age. For a spousal benefit, add your own full benefit if you have one.
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Early retirement reduction calculator
Exact reduction by month for your own benefit, a spousal benefit or a survivor benefit.
The reduction rules
| Benefit | First 36 months early | Each month beyond 36 | Lowest share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your own retirement benefit | 5/9 of 1% a month | 5/12 of 1% a month | 70% at 62 |
| Spousal benefit | 25/36 of 1% a month | 5/12 of 1% a month | 32.5% of the worker’s full benefit at 62 |
| Survivor benefit | 28.5% spread evenly from 60 to full retirement age | 71.5% at 60 |
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In yearly terms, that’s about 6.67% for each of the three years closest to full retirement age and 5% for each year before that. These are the reduction rules Social Security applies, counting only months before the month you reach full retirement age. Spousal benefits aren’t reduced for months you have the worker’s child under 16 or a disabled child in your care.
Reduction at 62 by year of birth
| Year of birth | Full retirement age | Own benefit at 62 | Spousal benefit at 62 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1943 to 1954 | 66 | 75% | 35% |
| 1955 | 66 and 2 months | 74.2% | 34.6% |
| 1956 | 66 and 4 months | 73.3% | 34.2% |
| 1957 | 66 and 6 months | 72.5% | 33.8% |
| 1958 | 66 and 8 months | 71.7% | 33.3% |
| 1959 | 66 and 10 months | 70.8% | 32.9% |
| 1960 and later | 67 | 70% | 32.5% |
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The figures match Social Security’s age reduction chart, which assumes you start the month you turn 62.
Most people can’t start at exactly 62
You have to be 62 for the whole month, and Social Security counts you as reaching an age the day before your birthday. Unless you were born on the 1st or 2nd of a month, your first possible month is the month after your 62nd birthday, so your earliest start is 62 and 1 month. With a full retirement age of 67, that’s 59 months early, not 60, and the reduction is 29.58% instead of 30%: someone with a $2,000 full benefit gets $1,408, not $1,400.
The reduction month by month
For someone with a full retirement age of 67 and a $2,000 full benefit:
| Start at | Months early | Share of full benefit | Monthly |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62 | 60 | 70% | $1,400 |
| 63 | 48 | 75% | $1,500 |
| 64 | 36 | 80% | $1,600 |
| 65 | 24 | 86.67% | $1,733 |
| 66 | 12 | 93.33% | $1,866 |
| 67 | 0 | 100% | $2,000 |
| 68 | 108% | $2,160 | |
| 69 | 116% | $2,320 | |
| 70 | 124% | $2,480 |
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Each month you wait between 62 and 64 adds 5/12 of 1% of your full benefit, about $8 a month on $2,000. Each month between 64 and 67 adds 5/9 of 1%, about $11. After 67, delayed retirement credits add 2/3 of 1% a month, about $13, until 70. Credits you earn in the year you start are added the following January, unless you start at 70.
For the highest earners, the reduction is the gap between the maximum benefit of $2,969 a month at 62 and $4,152 at full retirement age in 2026.
Spousal and survivor reductions
Spousal benefit with your own benefit
If you have your own retirement benefit and a spousal benefit, the two parts are reduced separately. Your own benefit gets the regular reduction. The spousal top-up, which is half of your spouse’s full benefit minus your own full benefit, gets the spousal reduction for your age when the top-up starts.
| Example, both starting at 62, full retirement age 67 | Amount |
|---|---|
| Your own full benefit of $600 at 70% | $420 |
| Top-up: $1,000 (half of a $2,000 full benefit) minus $600, at 65% | $260 |
| Total monthly | $680 |
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The spousal part is based on your spouse’s full benefit, not the reduced amount your spouse gets for starting early.
Spousal benefit only
A spousal benefit is half of the worker’s full benefit before the reduction, so a spouse starting at 62 with a full retirement age of 67 gets 65% of that half, 32.5% of the worker’s full benefit. Spousal benefits stop growing at the spouse’s full retirement age.
Survivor benefit
A survivor benefit can start at 60 at 71.5% and rises evenly to 100% at the survivor’s full retirement age, which comes up to four months earlier than full retirement age for your own benefit if you were born from 1955 to 1961. If the worker who died had taken reduced benefits, the survivor amount may be limited to what they were receiving or 82.5% of their full benefit.
Starting your own retirement benefit early doesn’t reduce a survivor benefit you switch to later. If you take your own at 62 and switch to the survivor benefit at your full retirement age for survivors, you get the full survivor amount.
Can the reduction be undone?
Not by reaching full retirement age; the reduced amount continues, plus yearly cost-of-living increases. Your benefit can still rise if you keep working: when a new year of earnings is higher than one of the 35 years in your record, Social Security recalculates your full benefit, and the same reduction percentage applies to the higher amount. The reduction itself can change in two ways. Within 12 months of starting, you can withdraw your application by repaying everything you received. And benefits withheld under the earnings test for working before full retirement age are added back by recalculating the reduction at full retirement age. Whether starting early pays off over your lifetime depends on how long you live; break-even ages run from about 78 to 82.