The When to Claim Social Security Calculator Pack: Seven linked calculators, every formula checked by recalculation

Seven calculators for one decision: when to start Social Security. Enter the PIA from your SSA statement and sheet 1 shows the monthly benefit at every age from 62 to 70: on a $2,000 PIA, $1,400 at 62 and $2,480 at 70. Sheet 3 finds the break-even age between any two claiming ages (80.4 for 62 against 70 in the worked example), and the others cover lifetime totals, the spousal benefit, COLA raises and the earnings test if you keep working. The reduction and credit rates, full retirement age, 2026 earnings limits and COLA were taken from ssa.gov on 2026-10-17 and are inputs you can update. This is not financial advice and does not replace SSA's own estimate. Every formula was recalculated and checked against an independent implementation before this shipped.

What is in it

7 calculators, one per sheet. Overwrite the blue cells with your own numbers and everything else follows. Nothing is locked, there are no macros, and it opens in Excel, Numbers, LibreOffice and Google Sheets.

• Benefit at each age: What is your monthly benefit if you claim at 62, 63 ... 70?
• Your exact claiming month: What does claiming at a given age AND month pay?
• Break-even between two ages: At what age does waiting pay back the checks you gave up?
• Lifetime total by age: If you live to a given age, which claiming age paid the largest total?
• Spousal benefit: What does a spouse get on the worker's record, and when?
• With COLA increases: With yearly cost-of-living raises, how do two claiming ages compare?
• Working while claiming: If you claim before full retirement age and keep working, what is held back?

Every formula was checked

This pack contains 63 formulas. Before it was published, every one of them was recalculated by a spreadsheet engine and compared against an independent implementation of the same arithmetic written in Python. All 63 agreed to within a cent, and the workbook carries a Verification sheet saying so.

That is an unusual thing to be able to claim about a spreadsheet, and it is the main reason to buy this one rather than download a free template. A formula that looks right and is wrong is worse than no formula at all, because you will act on it.

What each calculator assumes

There is a sheet listing this, because a calculator that hides its assumptions is just a number generator:

• Whole-year claiming ages. SSA's own rounding and payment timing are not modeled. The PIA is today's estimate from your statement and changes if you keep working. Rates are SSA's, fetched 2026-10-17, and are inputs.
• Delayed credits earned in the year you claim are added the following January (SSA delayret.html); this sheet shows the benefit with all credits applied. Your exact month count depends on your birth date (a Jan. 1 birthday counts in the year before); check SSA's calculator.
• No COLA here (sheet 6 adds it); a COLA raises both checks by the same percentage. Payments at the end of each month. "Never" means the saved early checks earn more each month than the later claim adds.
• Nominal dollars, no COLA, no return on the money, benefits paid every month from the claiming age to the age at death. Survivor benefits to a spouse are not included.
• Per SSA spouse.html, SSA pays the larger of the own and spousal benefit; this sheet shows that. When both are drawn early SSA computes the combination its own way and the total can differ; SSA's figure governs. The worker must have filed. A spouse caring for a qualifying child is not reduced. The family maximum is not modeled.
• Yearly steps: the benefit is raised by the COLA you enter once a year from age 62, before or after claiming, and paid 12 times at that level. Totals are nominal dollars. The COLA must be above 0%; for none, use sheet 3 or 4.
• SSA withholds whole monthly checks, so the held-back count is rounded up and the overpaid part comes back later; the exact months are SSA's. One year of withholding only. The FRA recalculation treats each held-back month as a month not claimed. Count only what SSA counts as earnings; check its rules for your income.

What this is not

Not financial, tax or legal advice, and not a recommendation to buy, sell, borrow or sign anything. These are calculators: they show what a choice costs, not which choice is right for you. Where a published rate or threshold is used it is the one current when the pack was built; those change, the arithmetic does not.

Honest about the format

One .xlsx workbook, 7 calculator sheets plus Start Here, Assumptions and Verification. Not a PDF, not a physical product, not a Notion template. Available immediately after purchase; nothing ships.

Refunds

If this isn't what you expected, email me within 30 days and I'll refund you in full. No need to explain. Because it's an instant download I can't take the file back, so I'd rather you just had your money back.