Free PDF Guide

The Social Security Claiming Guide

The claiming decision is worth six figures for many households, and the break-even spreadsheet answers the wrong question. What to weigh instead.

What’s inside

  • How your benefit is computed — and what each age pays

    The 35-year earnings record and the bend points, then the real math of claiming at 62, full retirement age, or 70.

  • Married couples claim as a team

    Coordinating two records — who files first, spousal benefits, and why the higher earner's decision is really a survivor decision.

  • The survivor benefit, up front

    One check disappears at the first death. Planning the claim around the benefit your household keeps.

  • The divorced-spouse flow

    The ten-year marriage test, what an ex-spouse's record can pay you, and why your claim never touches their benefit.

  • Working while claiming

    The earnings test before full retirement age: the thresholds, why withheld benefits aren't lost forever, and phased-retirement coordination.

  • Taxes, the torpedo, and beyond break-even

    How provisional income pulls benefits into taxation, plus the longevity and portfolio questions the spreadsheet answer misses.

Jim Crider

Written by Jim Crider, CFP®, founder of Intentional Living FP — a fee-only fiduciary wealth management firm in New Braunfels, Texas.

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This guide is educational only and is not specific financial, tax, or legal advice. Tax figures reflect 2026 rules and are subject to change. Fee-only fiduciary · No commissions · Always on your side of the table.