Estimate your lifetime Social Security benefits based on your claiming age, COLA, investment returns, and life expectancy. Compare different claiming ages and see yearly, cumulative, and future-value benefits to make informed retirement decisions.
It estimates your lifetime Social Security benefits based on the age you claim, cost-of-living adjustments (COLA), assumed investment returns, and your life expectancy, showing yearly, cumulative, and future-value benefit amounts.
Claiming earlier generally means smaller monthly checks for longer, while claiming later means larger monthly checks for a shorter period — the calculator lets you compare different claiming ages side by side to see how the total lifetime and future-value benefits change.
COLA (cost-of-living adjustment) is the annual increase applied to Social Security benefits to keep pace with inflation. Including it in the projection means the calculator reflects how your benefit is expected to grow over time, not just a flat payment.
Since Social Security pays for as long as you live, life expectancy determines how many years of payments you're likely to receive — a big factor in which claiming age produces the higher lifetime total.
The Retirement Calculator projects your broader net worth and estate at retirement, the Monte Carlo Retirement Simulation stress-tests a retirement plan across many market scenarios, and the Annuity Calculator models another source of guaranteed retirement income.
