Dave Ramsey’s Social Security Advice Is Unpopular Among Experts – But It’s Probably Right for a Very Specific Reason

Dave Ramsey has spent years telling listeners that the conventional wisdom on Social Security is wrong. His position: claim at 62, the earliest age you can, and invest every check. “It usually makes sense to take it earlier and invest it,” he has argued on his show, calling the program a “mathematical disaster” he wants out of as fast as possible.

Almost every retirement planner disagrees. The Social Security Administration mechanically increases your monthly check by about 8% for each year you delay claiming up to age 70, and reduces it by up to 30% if you claim at 62. Following Ramsey and getting the math wrong means locking in a smaller check for the rest of your life, with no take-backs.

The verdict: right answer, wrong reason

Ramsey is probably right that most Americans should claim early. His reasoning, that you’ll beat the system by investing the checks, does not hold up.

The 8% annual increase from delaying is a guaranteed, government-backed return on a stream of payments that lasts your entire life and partially adjusts for inflation. Historical stock returns of 7% to 10% annually are an average across decades, not a guarantee in any given year. On a risk-adjusted basis, a guaranteed 8% beats an expected 8% almost every time. If you have the cash flow to delay and you live to a normal life expectancy, waiting wins.

Here is the break-even math Ramsey skips. Imagine your full retirement age benefit at 67 is $2,000 a month. Claim at 62 and the check drops to roughly $1,400. Wait until 70 and it grows to about $2,480. Over a year, that is $16,800 at 62 versus $29,760 at 70, a gap of nearly $13,000 every single year, for life. The break-even point where the delayed claimer catches up in total dollars received sits around age 80 to 82. Live past that, and waiting was the better financial trade. Remaining life expectancy at age 65 is now about 20.6 years, which puts the average 65-year-old comfortably past the break-even line.

So why is Ramsey’s advice still probably right for most people? Because most people are not making this decision from a position of strength.

The variable that decides it: when you actually stop working

The break-even math assumes you have a paycheck or enough savings to bridge the gap from 62 to 70. Most Americans do not.

The average retirement age in the United States is currently 62. Nearly half of Social Security recipients start taking benefits at 62, more than at any other age. And the savings cushion for that group is thin. Fidelity’s most recent data shows the average 401(k) balance for workers aged 60 to 64 is $246,500, with median balances far lower. Schwab’s 2025 survey put the “magic number” Americans believe they need at $1.6 million. The gap is enormous.

Run the variable two ways. If you have a pension, strong savings, or part-time income that covers your bills from 62 to 70, delaying earns you that extra $13,000-a-year check for the rest of your life. If you stop working at 62 with $250,000 in a 401(k) and no pension, drawing down savings to delay Social Security means burning through your nest egg years faster, exposing you to sequence-of-returns risk in a bad market, and leaving you with less flexibility for medical bills. In that case, claiming early stabilizes cash flow when you need it most.

That is the case for Ramsey’s verdict, even if the “invest the check” rationale is shaky. The right answer is “claim early because you have to.”

What to do before you file

Three concrete steps before you make the call:

1. Pull your personalized benefit estimates at SSA.gov for ages 62, 67, and 70. The percentages above are averages. Your numbers are specific to your earnings record.
2. Add up every income source available between 62 and 70: pension, part-time work, spouse’s income, taxable savings. If the total covers your essential bills without touching tax-advantaged accounts, delaying is on the table.
3. Calculate your personal break-even age using your real benefit numbers. If your family health history and current health put you well past it, the math favors waiting. If not, claim when the paycheck stops.

Ramsey’s advice fits the country Americans actually live in, where retirement often arrives before the savings do. The math behind it is just different from the math he uses to defend it.