Dave Ramsey and Suze Orman Have Opposite Advice on Social Security. The Data Is Clear on Who Is Right

Few financial decisions carry as much long-term weight as choosing when to claim Social Security. The age you file locks in your monthly benefit for life, making this one of the most consequential retirement choices you will ever face.

Filing at your full retirement age (FRA), which is 67 for anyone born in 1960 or later, gives you the standard monthly benefit tied to your earnings history. Claim earlier or later, and that amount shifts permanently in either direction.

The earliest eligible age is 62. Claiming then cuts your monthly benefit by about 30% compared to filing at FRA. Delaying past FRA earns you an 8% annual credit for each year you wait, up to age 70. With an FRA of 67, that maximum delay produces a 24% permanent boost to your monthly check.

Those percentages add up fast in dollar terms. Consider a worker whose baseline benefit at 67 is $2,000 per month. Filing at 62 permanently reduces that to $1,400. Waiting until 70 raises it permanently to $2,480. The spread between the earliest and latest claiming ages reaches 77% in guaranteed monthly income, a gap that compounds sharply over a long retirement. For context, the average retired worker collected about $2,025 per month in 2026, meaning the difference between claiming strategies can easily eclipse $500 per month.

Two of America’s most prominent personal finance voices, Dave Ramsey and Suze Orman, land on opposite sides of this decision. The data, however, gives one of them a clear edge.

Dave Ramsey’s Advice on Social Security

Ramsey advocates claiming at 62. His core argument is straightforward: the earlier you start collecting, the more individual payments you receive over your lifetime. Beyond the raw payment count, he argues that retirees who invest early benefits rather than spend them can more than offset the reduction that comes with filing before FRA. In his view, putting that money to work in the market neutralizes the actuarial penalty built into early claiming.

The Case for Ramsey in a High-Yield Environment

Critics of Ramsey’s approach argue that it forces retirees to gamble their safety net on stock market returns. Current bond market conditions do lend some credibility to his logic. The 10-year Treasury yield reached an intraday high of 5.36% on October 7, 2026, its highest level since 2002, driven by a Federal Reserve rate hike, surging AI-related corporate debt issuance, a fiscal year 2026 federal deficit of $1.99 trillion, rising energy prices, and global bond selloffs across Japan, the UK, and France. Early claimers can now access meaningful risk-free yields without touching volatile equities. Locking in that rate reshapes the traditional break-even math, giving a conservative saver a legitimate way to hedge against the lower monthly payout without putting principal at risk.

The Working Retirement Trap: The Earnings Test Penalty

A significant flaw in the claim-early-and-invest strategy surfaces for anyone who keeps working after filing. Under the Social Security earnings test, if you are under full retirement age for the entire year, the SSA withholds $1 in benefits for every $2 you earn above the annual exempt amount, which is $24,480 in 2026. For a retiree counting on that monthly check to fund an investment strategy, this withholding can wipe out the surplus entirely. The investment thesis only holds if the cash flow actually materializes, and for many working retirees, it simply does not.

Suze Orman’s Advice on Social Security

Orman takes the opposite position: 70 is the right age to claim. Her reasoning centers on the lifetime value of a larger guaranteed check. A higher baseline benefit carries special weight for retirees who reach their later years without substantial savings, a situation that describes a large and growing share of older Americans. Social Security is often the only truly guaranteed income stream in retirement, and the bigger that stream, the more financial resilience a retiree carries into the years ahead.

The Fixed-Cost Squeeze Supporting Orman

Rising fixed costs in retirement reinforce Orman’s argument. The standard monthly Medicare Part B premium reached $202.90 in 2026, a jump of $17.90 (9.7%) from $185 in 2025. According to the 2026 Medicare Trustees Report, the premium is projected to rise again to $209.50 in 2027, with the official CMS announcement expected in November 2026. That trajectory arrived alongside a 2026 Social Security COLA of just 2.8%, while the SSA has since officially confirmed a 3.6% COLA for 2027, the largest increase in four years. Research from the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College found that the Part B premium hike alone consumed more than a quarter of the 2026 COLA for the typical beneficiary, leaving the net purchasing-power gain far smaller than the headline number suggested. For retirees locked into a reduced early-claiming benefit, healthcare cost creep erodes real income faster with each passing year. Orman’s case for waiting until 70 is, in part, a structural hedge against that squeeze.

The Spousal Coordination and Tax Safety Nets

Viewing Social Security in isolation misses some of the most powerful optimization strategies available, particularly for married couples. In a dual-income household, having the lower-earning spouse file early provides immediate liquidity while the primary earner delays until 70. That approach permanently locks in the highest possible survivor benefit, protecting whichever spouse outlives the other. The gap between the two claiming ages also creates a useful income-sequencing window, letting the couple draw down taxable retirement accounts before the larger benefit kicks in.

A separate but related consideration is the so-called Tax Torpedo, the income threshold at which required minimum distributions and investment income combine to make up to 85% of Social Security benefits subject to federal income tax. Early filers who also hold large tax-deferred retirement accounts can find that additional bracket exposure quietly eroding the real value of their monthly benefit. Delaying Social Security while strategically converting traditional IRA assets to Roth accounts is one proven way to reduce that exposure before benefits begin.

Ramsey vs. Orman: Who Is Right on Social Security?

There is no universally correct age to file. The right answer depends on your health, your savings, your spouse’s situation, and your plans for continued work. What looks optimal for one retiree can be a poor fit for another.

That said, the broad data tilts clearly toward Orman. A 2019 study by investment firm United Income, which analyzed the claiming decisions of roughly 20,000 retired workers, found that 57% would have come out ahead financially by waiting until age 70. A 2022 paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research went further, concluding that more than 90% of workers should wait until 70, yet only about 10.2% actually do. The same paper found that the typical household aged 45 to 62 loses a median of $182,370 in lifetime discretionary spending by claiming too early, a striking illustration of how costly the default toward early claiming can be.

Social Security and SSI benefits for roughly 75 million Americans increased 2.8% in 2026. With the SSA now officially confirming a 3.6% COLA for 2027, beginning in January, the income picture for beneficiaries is improving. Even so, the fear of leaving money on the table by waiting continues to push retirees toward early claiming. According to Social Security Administration data, nearly a quarter of new retired-worker beneficiaries claimed at 62 last year, and nearly half filed before reaching their full retirement age. Cash-flow anxiety, health concerns, and the psychological pull of getting “something now” routinely override the long-term math. It is also worth noting that the 2026 Social Security Trustees Report projects the program’s combined trust fund reserves will be depleted by 2033, at which point only about 77% of earned benefits could be paid without congressional action, adding another layer of uncertainty for those who plan their retirements around the program’s current benefit structure.

From a pure wealth-accumulation standpoint, Orman’s advice holds for most people. But “most” carries real weight here. If your health is poor, if you have limited savings and pressing bills, or if you plan to keep working past 62 regardless, the calculus shifts. Filing at FRA or somewhere between 62 and 70 may fit your actual circumstances better than either extreme.

The most important takeaway is that this decision deserves genuine analysis, not a default. Run the numbers for your specific situation, and consider working with a fee-only financial planner before you file.

Editor’s note: This update reflects the SSA’s official confirmation of a 3.6% Social Security COLA for 2027, announced October 14, 2026, replacing the previous “estimated 3.5% to 3.6%” language. It also corrects the 10-year Treasury yield peak to 5.36% (the intraday high on October 7, 2026, per Yahoo Finance), updates the federal deficit to the final Treasury figure of $1.99 trillion for fiscal year 2026, refines the Medicare Part B 2026 premium increase to the precise 9.7% figure, and adds context from the 2026 Social Security Trustees Report on the projected 2033 trust fund depletion date.

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