Social Security is the financial backbone of retirement for millions of Americans. But a handful of common mistakes can quietly shrink those monthly checks, sometimes by hundreds of dollars. Here are the five missteps experts see most often.
1. Claiming Too Early
This is the big one. Claiming at age 62 cuts your benefit by 30 percent compared to what you’d receive at full retirement age, which is 67 for anyone born after 1960.
Retirement planner Hagen Pruemm of SIS Financial Group puts it plainly. The breakeven age for someone who claims early is around 78. With more of us living well into our 80s, claiming too soon can mean leaving a significant amount of money on the table over a lifetime.
CFP fiduciary advisor Nick St. George of St. George Wealth Management says many people treat claiming like a light switch. They turn 62 and feel like they have to flip it on. They don’t.
Here is a concrete example St. George offers: if your full retirement age benefit is $2,500 a month and you claim at 62, your monthly check drops to about $1,750 for the rest of your life. That is $750 less every single month.
2. Working While Collecting Before Full Retirement Age
Some retirees claim early and keep working. That combination comes with a catch most people don’t know about until it hits them.
Joe Braier, president and CEO of Lake Country Advisors, says exceeding the earnings limits temporarily reduces your benefits and most retirees are caught off guard when it happens.
Pruemm explains the specific number to watch for 2026: $24,480 in earnings. Go above that, and Social Security withholds $1 for every $2 you earn over the limit. It is a temporary reduction, but an unwelcome surprise if you were not expecting it.
3. Underestimating What Gets Taken Out
Your Social Security benefit and your Social Security check are not the same number. Two things eat into the difference: Medicare premiums and taxes.
The standard Medicare Part B premium in 2026 is $202.90 per month, and it comes straight out of your Social Security payment before you ever see it. Depending on your modified adjusted gross income, that amount can climb as high as $689.90 per person per month, Pruemm says.
Taxes can reduce your net amount further, especially for retirees in higher income brackets. St. George notes that after all the deductions, some retirees are discovering they are $200 to $300 a month short of what they expected.
4. Not Coordinating With Your Spouse
Married couples have more decisions to make and more at stake. The timing of when each spouse claims can have a lasting effect on what the surviving partner receives later.
Pruemm is direct about this: the higher-earning spouse should delay benefits to maximize what the survivor collects. When both spouses claim early, especially when there was a big gap in earnings, the consequences can follow that survivor for the rest of their life.
“When one of you dies, the benefit that the surviving spouse receives is almost always more than what you currently get,” Pruemm explained. “If the primary earner applied at an early age, the lower benefit that is paid to the survivor for the rest of her life would continue.”
5. Not Understanding How Your Benefit Is Calculated
Social Security bases your benefit on your highest 35 earning years, adjusted for inflation. If you have fewer than 35 years of earnings on record, the missing years count as zero and those zeros pull your average down.
Pruemm notes this is why working longer, or earning more in your later years, can sometimes raise the benefit you eventually collect. The formula rewards a fuller earnings record.
Understanding these rules does not take a financial degree. But knowing them before you file can protect the monthly income you have spent a lifetime earning.
