Skip to navigationSkip to main contentSkip to right columnADVERTISEMENTGerelyn TerzoSun, June 7, 2026 at 1:30 PM GMT+2 5 min readQuick ReadFor a retiree with $2 million, the breakeven for delaying Social Security until 70 is not reached until age 81 or 82, which is barely ahead of median life expectancy.Claiming at 65 preserves $30,000 yearly in investments compounding at 6.5%, far outpacing the 2.5% annual COLA growth on a delayed benefit.Unlike portfolio assets, Social Security cannot be inherited, and delaying the higher earner's benefit does boost a surviving spouse's lifetime check.Many financial professionals are salespeople paid on what they push, not whether you end up wealthier. A fiduciary is the opposite. The SEC legally requires them to put your interests first. Advisor.com's free matching tool pairs you with vetted fiduciaries from firms like Vanguard, Empower, and Edelman — in under three minutes. See who you match with today.Picture a 65-year-old who just retired with a spouse, no pension, and roughly $2 million in a 60/40 portfolio. The mortgage is paid. The kids are grown. The question keeping him up at night is the one almost every advisor answers the same way: should he file for Social Security now, wait until full retirement age (FRA) at 67, or hold out until 70 for the biggest check?For this household, the default advice to wait until 70 is probably the wrong call. A retiree asking the same question on a popular finance forum recently put it bluntly: he had the savings to fund a comfortable retirement without Social Security, so why was he being told to delay a benefit he had already earned?That instinct deserves more credit than it usually gets.Start with his numbers. His primary insurance amount (PIA) at age 67 is $2,840 a month. Claiming now at 65 trims it to roughly $2,462 a month, or about $29,544 a year. Waiting until 70 lifts it to $3,522 a month, about $42,264 a year, thanks to delayed retirement credits worth 8% per year between the ages of 67 and 70.On paper, the larger check looks like a slam dunk. The catch is the breakeven. Claiming at 65 generates roughly $147,000 before age 70 even arrives. For the bigger benefit to catch up, he needs to live to about age 81 or 82. Median life expectancy for a 65-year-old man is around 83 to 84. He clears breakeven, barely, and only if he hits the median.Now layer in the portfolio. Every dollar Social Security pays is a dollar he does not pull from his investments. If he claims now and leaves $30,000 a year compounding at a long-run 60/40 return of about 6.5%, that first year of preserved withdrawals grows to roughly $41,000 by age 70 and $56,000 by 75. The delayed credit grows only at cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) running near 2.5% annually. The 10-year Treasury is yielding almost 4.5%, and the total US stock market is up roughly 245% over the past decade. The opportunity cost is real.Terms and Privacy PolicyPrivacy & Cookie SettingsMore Info