Dave Ramsey is full of financial advice. And much of it tends to follow a similar pattern: Save money. Avoid debt. Repeat.
Ramsey also thinks Americans need to be very careful when it comes to claiming Social Security. But his advice might surprise you, and it might also be pretty tough for the typical retiree to follow.
How Ramsey suggests Americans manage their Social Security benefits
When it comes to Social Security, recipients have choices as to when to file. The earliest age to claim benefits is 62. Anyone wanting their full monthly benefit without a reduction will need to wait until full retirement age (FRA), which is 67 for people born in 1960 or later. It could also pay to delay past FRA: each additional year of waiting boosts benefits by 8%, up until age 70.
Based on the type of advice Ramsey tends to give out, one might assume his Social Security guidance is to delay benefits as long as possible for the largest possible monthly checks. Surprisingly, Ramsey actually thinks it is wise to claim at the earliest possible age of 62, despite the permanent reduction that comes with it. His logic is twofold. First, he figures that since people only collect Social Security for as long as they are alive, filing early could, for many people, lock in a larger number of monthly checks and therefore a larger lifetime benefit. Second, Ramsey suggests that claimants take benefits at 62 and invest the money, growing it into a larger sum over time.
Why Ramsey’s advice is so hard to follow
The claiming-at-62 part of Ramsey’s advice is not particularly controversial on its own. But the share of Americans filing at that age has been shrinking for decades. The percentage of new beneficiaries claiming at 62 dropped from a peak of more than 60% in the 1990s to roughly 26% in 2024, the lowest level in at least 40 years. In fact, in 2024, 27% of men and 25.3% of women signed up for benefits at 66, making that age the most popular single filing age. The dollar difference between filing early and waiting is substantial: the average monthly Social Security benefit paid to retired workers in December 2024 was $1,342 at age 62, rising to $1,930 at age 67 and $2,148 at age 70.
The bigger problem with Ramsey’s advice is the investing component. A 2024 Census Bureau report found that 42% of older Americans depend on Social Security benefits for half or more of their income, and 14% rely on them for 90% or more. For those households, investing Social Security checks simply is not an option because the money is already spoken for. The median retirement savings for Americans aged 55 to 64 is just $185,000, according to the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances, far short of the comfort threshold most financial planners recommend.
Beyond the savings gap, many Americans do not have experience investing. Even when the money is not immediately needed to cover expenses, handing the typical retiree a Social Security check each month and trusting them to invest it wisely is a stretch. A 2022 National Bureau of Economic Research study concluded that more than 90% of workers aged 45 to 62 would maximize their lifetime Social Security income by claiming at age 70, and fewer than 1% would optimize by claiming before age 66. Yet the gap between what is mathematically optimal and what people actually do remains enormous.
There is also the complication of the Social Security Earnings Test for those who plan to work while collecting early benefits. In 2026, for beneficiaries younger than FRA throughout the year, the annual earnings limit is $24,480, and $1 in benefits is withheld for every $2 earned above that threshold. That clawback can seriously undercut the math behind Ramsey’s strategy for part-time workers. It is worth noting that withheld benefits are not permanently lost: the SSA recalculates and increases your monthly benefit after FRA to credit you for the months when benefits were withheld. Still, managing that cash-flow gap in the years before FRA is a real challenge for many retirees.
Adding fresh urgency to the debate, claims surged in 2025, rising about 11% from the prior year, as some Americans filed amid uncertainty about the program’s future and staffing changes at the SSA. An Urban Institute analysis found that higher-income individuals, those best positioned to delay, were filing at 62 in unusually high numbers. That dynamic cuts against Ramsey’s assumption that early claiming is primarily a tool for people who need the income most.
Ramsey probably understands that the typical American needs Social Security for income and is not well positioned to invest it. On that basis, advising people to delay claims for larger monthly payments would seem more consistent with his usual emphasis on financial security. What may be pulling him toward early claiming is longevity risk. Many Americans carry chronic health conditions, and Ramsey may view claiming at 62 as the safer bet for people whose life expectancy is uncertain.
From a purely mathematical standpoint, though, delaying benefits past FRA yields a guaranteed, inflation-protected return of roughly 8% per year, which sets an incredibly high benchmark for any conservative investment portfolio to beat. A retiree who delays until 67 must live past roughly age 77 to 78 to collect more in total lifetime benefits than someone who filed at 62. Delaying until 70 shifts that break-even point to around age 80. For context, Social Security beneficiaries received a 2.8% cost-of-living adjustment for 2026, and those who claimed a reduced benefit at 62 will see all future COLA increases compound off a permanently lower baseline, widening the income gap over time.
Should you follow Ramsey’s Social Security advice?
Ramsey’s approach may be appropriate for a narrow set of people, but it requires an honest self-assessment. If your Social Security check is your main source of retirement income and your savings are modest, claiming early locks in a permanently reduced monthly payment. Worse, over the last decade the average annual COLA has been about 3.1%, which means a smaller baseline benefit compounds at that rate for life, steadily falling further behind what a delayed claim would have produced.
Affluent retirees who genuinely have the flexibility to invest early checks should consider a structured alternative: drawing down a portion of tax-advantaged retirement accounts during the early retirement years to bridge income while delaying Social Security, then locking in a higher guaranteed benefit for life. That strategy converts a depleting asset (the retirement account) into a permanently larger inflation-indexed stream from Social Security.
If you have never invested a dollar in your life, it is unrealistic to assume you will start now just because Ramsey says so. For those in that position, claiming at FRA or later is likely the more practical path. Just 19% of currently retired Americans say they are not reliant on Social Security, which puts the stakes of this decision in sharp relief.
The one scenario where Ramsey’s early-claiming logic holds up is a genuine health impairment that makes a long life unlikely. For everyone else, the decision deserves careful analysis of break-even ages, current savings, expected expenses, and investment experience before rushing to file at 62.
Editor’s note: This update adds current SSA benefit figures showing average monthly payments of $1,342 at age 62, $1,930 at age 67, and $2,148 at age 70 (December 2024 data); the 2026 Social Security Earnings Test threshold of $24,480; the 2026 COLA of 2.8%; the 2022 NBER finding that over 90% of workers would maximize lifetime benefits by claiming at 70; the 2025 surge in Social Security applications; and Census Bureau data showing 42% of older Americans rely on Social Security for at least half their income.
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