Retirement is supposed to feel like a finish line. After decades of working, saving, and contributing to Social Security, you finally get to collect what you earned. But for many retirees who claimed at 65, a creeping sense of regret sets in once the full picture becomes clear. Sixty-five is not actually the “full retirement age” anymore, and claiming then quietly locks in a permanent reduction that plays out every single month for the rest of your life.
The numbers are not abstract. They show up in every utility bill, every medical co-pay, every family gathering where you quietly do the math in your head. Understanding why waiting even a couple more years would have made a meaningful difference is not about self-blame. It is about making sure anyone approaching that decision has the information that many retirees wish they had been given clearly and plainly.
Here Are the Key Reasons Retirees Regret Claiming Social Security at 65
The Social Security claiming decision is one of the most permanent financial choices a person can make in retirement. Once you have been receiving benefits for 12 months, that decision is locked in for life. The reasons retirees regret claiming at 65 are not random or emotional. They are rooted in real, documented trade-offs involving benefit reductions, lost credits, tax exposure, and spousal financial security.
The following 10 points cover exactly why claiming at 65 rather than waiting until full retirement age or even age 70 leaves many retirees in a financially weaker position. Each one reflects a consequence that tends to compound quietly over time, often without becoming fully visible until years into retirement.
1. Age 65 Is No Longer the Full Retirement Age
For generations, Americans grew up believing that age 65 was the finish line, the golden age when you hung up your work boots and rode into retirement bliss. That belief is now outdated and costly for those who act on it. There is a “full retirement age” set by the Social Security Administration, currently between 66 and 67 for most people, depending on your birth year. Claiming at 65 means you are still technically claiming early, which triggers a permanent reduction in your monthly benefit.
If you were born between 1943 and 1954, your full retirement age is 66. If your birth year is 1960 or after, your full retirement age is 67. Anyone born between 1955 and 1959 has a retirement age between 66 and 67, that is, 66 plus a certain number of months. If you turn 65 in 2025, you must wait until 2027 to reach your full retirement age and receive 100% of your earned benefits. Many retirees simply did not know this when they filed.
2. Claiming Before Full Retirement Age Permanently Reduces Your Benefit
Claiming at age 65 results in a monthly check of about 86.6% of your full benefit, which is $267 less each month compared to claiming at 67. That might not sound alarming at first. Multiplied across 20 or more years of retirement, though, the total shortfall is staggering. When considering early retirement, it is important to understand that starting retirement benefits early will reduce your benefit.
Claiming Social Security early has a trade-off: it lowers your monthly payment by about 30%, with those lower benefits locked in for the rest of your life. Even the more moderate reduction that comes from claiming at 65 instead of 67 compounds painfully over a long retirement. That reduction is permanent. There is no resetting the clock once you have received benefits for a year.
3. You Miss Out on Powerful Delayed Retirement Credits
For every year you delay your claim past your full retirement age, you get an 8% increase in your benefit. Those delayed retirement credits stop accumulating at age 70, making 70 the peak claiming age for monthly benefit size. Delaying Social Security until age 70 results in a roughly 24% higher monthly payment than if you claimed benefits at age 67, also locked in as long as you are collecting benefits.
Waiting to collect Social Security benefits can increase your annual payment by 8% on average for each year you delay. Delayed retirement credits add up until you reach age 70, at which point your benefit amount stops increasing. Claiming at 65 means you not only miss the boost from delaying past your full retirement age, but you also never capture any of those credits. The compounding effect of that gap grows more visible as each year of retirement passes.
4. The Lifetime Financial Loss Is Larger Than Most People Realize
Financial experts often recommend that seniors hold off as long as they can, with one study finding that filing early for benefits can cost $182,000 in foregone payments. Even the narrower gap between claiming at 65 versus 67 translates into tens of thousands of dollars over a typical retirement. Over a 20-year retirement, losing 13% of a monthly benefit means being out somewhere between $40,000 and $50,000.
The average Social Security benefit for retired workers came to about $2,000 per month in mid-2025, according to Bankrate. Claiming before full retirement age means your baseline is lower than it should be, and every annual cost-of-living adjustment you receive is calculated on top of that reduced amount. The gap never closes. It simply inflates at the same rate as your already-diminished benefit.
5. The Break-Even Calculation Was Never Done
If you live long enough, the cumulative benefits from the later, higher start will eventually catch up with the sum of reduced payments you can start drawing earlier. That catch-up moment is called the break-even age, at which the dollar value of claiming benefits later surpasses the value of taking them early. Many retirees who claimed at 65 never ran this calculation before filing. The break-even between claiming at 62 and claiming at 67 is around age 78. The break-even between claiming at 67 and claiming at 70 is around age 82, and the break-even between claiming at 62 and claiming at 70 is around age 80.
According to the SSA, the average life expectancy for a 65-year-old is around 84 years for males and 87 for females. That means most retirees will live past their break-even point, making a later claiming age the better financial choice for the majority of people. According to the SSA, more than one in three 65-year-olds will live to age 90. Those are not odds that favor rushing to claim early.
6. The Surge in Early Claimers Is a Warning Sign for Everyone
From January through July 2025, more than 2.3 million people filed for Social Security retirement benefits, up 16% from the same period in 2024, according to the Urban Institute’s Jack Smalligan. This surge is being driven in part by fear, not financial planning. That is a reversal of a decades-long trend of older Americans increasingly claiming Social Security later, with even people with higher incomes increasingly starting Social Security at 62. Fear and uncertainty about the program’s future are driving people to grab benefits early, even when it is not financially optimal.
Concerns about the future of Social Security are fueling worries that “the money may not be there if they wait.” Social Security is indeed facing a financial crunch, with an aging U.S. population resulting in its payments now outpacing contributions from workers. Without changes to the program, that will result in its trust funds becoming insolvent by 2034, according to the most recent calculation from the Social Security Board of Trustees. Yet many people wrongly believe that means Social Security will halt payments if the trust funds become insolvent. Payments would continue in such an event, but benefits would be reduced by about 20%. Claiming early out of fear of a system collapse may actually accelerate individual financial harm.
7. Your Spouse’s Financial Security Is Also Affected
If you had maximized your benefit by waiting until 70, your spouse would receive that higher amount as a survivor. Instead, they receive the reduced amount you locked in at 65. That is another layer of regret, knowing the decision impacts their financial security too. This aspect of the claiming decision is often entirely overlooked during retirement planning. Your decision to take benefits early could outlive you. If you were to die before your spouse, they would be eligible to receive your monthly amount as a survivor benefit, if it is higher than their own amount.
The math on survivor benefits is complicated, but surviving spouses who have reached their full retirement age are eligible for 100% of their deceased spouse’s benefits. The catch is that 100% is based on what you were receiving, not your maximum potential benefit. If you are the higher-earning spouse and want to be sure your surviving spouse receives the highest possible benefit, waiting longer to claim matters significantly. Claiming at 65 rather than 70 could reduce a surviving spouse’s income for the rest of their life.
8. Taxes on Benefits Catch Many Retirees Off Guard
Many retirees are surprised to learn that Social Security benefits are not automatically tax-free. Because the rules are complex and the income thresholds are relatively low, even middle-income retirees can find themselves paying more tax than expected. The taxable portion of benefits depends on combined income, a figure that includes adjusted gross income, nontaxable interest, and half of your Social Security benefits. If combined income is under $25,000 for single filers or $32,000 for married filing jointly, benefits are not taxed. Above those thresholds, up to 50% or 85% of benefits can be taxable.
The income thresholds for taxing Social Security benefits have not changed in more than 30 years. That has caused more retirees to pay federal taxes on Social Security benefits, often on money they spent decades earning and contributing to through payroll taxes. Today, nearly half of all beneficiaries reportedly pay tax on at least some portion of their Social Security income. Claiming at a lower benefit level does not necessarily protect you from this tax trap, especially if you have other retirement income sources.
9. The COLA Always Starts From Your Reduced Base
Based on the increase in the Consumer Price Index from the third quarter of 2024 through the third quarter of 2025, Social Security beneficiaries and Supplemental Security Income recipients will receive a 2.8% COLA for 2026. That sounds like helpful news, and it is. But every annual COLA is applied as a percentage of whatever benefit you are already receiving. The average retired worker’s monthly benefit is expected to increase by $56, to about $2,064.
Some critics argue that the CPI-W, the index used to calculate the COLA, does not accurately reflect the spending habits of seniors, who often face higher-than-average cost increases in healthcare and long-term care. Someone who claimed at a reduced benefit of, say, $1,700 per month receives a smaller dollar increase from the same COLA percentage than someone who waited and receives $2,400. Part of the COLA increase may be offset by higher Medicare Part B premiums, which are automatically deducted for most individuals over age 65. The standard Part B premium increased by about $21 per month in 2026, reducing the net monthly benefit increase by that amount. For those with an already-reduced benefit, that offset stings more.
10. There Are Very Few Ways To Undo an Early Claim
Unlike other financial mistakes, this one cannot be undone once you have received benefits for 12 months, according to a 2024 AARP survey. Social Security does allow a one-time withdrawal of your application within the first 12 months, but doing so requires repaying every dollar of benefits already received. That is a realistic option for very few retirees. After that window closes, the reduced benefit is permanent.
While the advice to wait as long as possible to claim Social Security makes financial sense, it also does not fully account for people’s individual needs and circumstances. Many older adults claim benefits early out of financial necessity, while others may do so because health issues or chronic conditions lead them to expect a shorter-than-average lifespan. Still, for those who claimed at 65 in good health without pressing financial need, the permanence of that reduced benefit is the hardest part to accept. The decision that took minutes to make reshapes every month of retirement that follows.
The Lesson That Comes Too Late for Some Retirees
The most painful part of this regret is its clarity in hindsight. The rules around claiming age, delayed retirement credits, and the difference between 65 and full retirement age are not hidden. They are available from the SSA, from financial advisors, and from countless resources. Retirement planning in 2025 and beyond is not about a single age anymore. It is about timing, taxes, and trade-offs. A smart plan looks at not just when to retire, but how to phase into it.
Evaluating the Social Security decision should be based on how much you have saved for retirement, your other sources of income in retirement, and your expectations for longevity. While many people could benefit from waiting to age 70 to take Social Security payments, others may need the income sooner to help pay their bills, or they may anticipate not living long enough to reap the rewards of delaying. The difference between a regret and a sound decision is often just a deeper look at the numbers before filing, not after the fact.