Eight years of choice

Social Security pays a set amount at full retirement age, which is 67 for anyone born from 1960. You can start as early as 62 for a permanently smaller payment, or wait until 70 for a permanently larger one.

The spread is enormous: 70% of your benefit at one end, 124% at the other, for life. The arithmetic turns almost entirely on how long you live — and if you are married, on how long the survivor lives, because the survivor keeps the larger of the two payments and loses the smaller.

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