How many years should you plan for?

The Social Security Administration publishes its own Life Expectancy Calculator on ssa.gov, which asks for sex and date of birth. This calculator uses the life table SSA’s actuaries publish (the 2023 period life table used in the 2026 Trustees Report) and adds the chance of reaching later ages, planning ages and couple figures. Results can differ slightly because SSA’s tool also uses your exact birth date.

Using SSA’s 2023 period life table, a 65-year-old man lives another 18.1 years on average, to about 83, and a 65-year-old woman another 20.7 years, to about 86. About 1 in 4 men aged 65 reach 89, and 1 in 4 women reach 92.

Because the people who reach an age have already survived the risks before it. Life expectancy at birth in the table is about 76 for men and 81 for women, but a man who has reached 80 can expect to live to about 88½, and a woman to about 90.

A period life table shows death rates for every age in a single year, here 2023. It describes how long people would live if today’s death rates never changed. Because death rates have generally fallen over time, many actuaries treat period figures as slightly conservative for younger people.

It is accurate for groups, not for individuals. The averages come from the whole US population of each age and sex. Health conditions, smoking, family history, income and education change any one person’s outlook a great deal, so use the results for planning, not prediction.

Claiming age is a trade-off between smaller checks for longer and bigger checks for fewer years. If you, or the longer-lived spouse, are likely to reach the planning ages, waiting usually pays off; a survivor generally keeps the larger of the two benefits. Social Security’s own calculators and a my Social Security account show your real benefit amounts.