About SSA Easy Guide

SSA Easy Guide is part of Easy Guides, an independent publisher founded in 2025 that turns confusing official processes into plain-English steps.

Why this site exists

Social Security is one of the largest financial decisions most people make, it is usually made once, and the choice is close to irreversible after 12 months. Claiming at 62 instead of full retirement age is a permanent 30% cut; waiting to 70 is a permanent 24% rise. Most of what is written about it is published by firms selling retirement products, which bends the advice in one direction. We sell nothing, so we can say when claiming early is right, when waiting is, and when the honest answer is that it depends on how long you live and nobody knows that.

Who is behind it

SSA Easy Guide is produced by the Easy Guides editorial team, one of 12 sites we publish on confusing official processes. We are not the Social Security Administration, a financial advisor or a benefits representative, and we say so on every page. We have no product to sell you and take no commission on any decision described here. Your own earnings record and the official answers live at SSA.gov, which no third party can substitute for.

How we work

Guides start from the Social Security Administration's own formulas, publications and figures. The claiming calculator uses SSA's exact rules, a reduction of 5/9 of one percent per month for the first 36 months before full retirement age and 5/12 beyond it, with delayed credits of 2/3 of one percent per month to age 70, rather than the rounded approximations most tools use.

We also checked how all fifty states treat benefits, and found that only eight still tax them. Much of what is published online names states that stopped years ago. Full standards are in our Editorial and Fact-Check Policy.

Contact

Questions or corrections? Email hello@theeasyguides.com. We check every reported error against the primary source and fix confirmed mistakes promptly.

Educational content only, not financial or legal advice.