For most East Tennessee families approaching retirement, Social Security represents one of the most significant sources of guaranteed lifetime income they will ever have. It is also one of the most permanent decisions they will ever make.

Claim too early and you lock in a reduced benefit for the rest of your life. Wait strategically and you can increase your monthly income by tens of thousands of dollars over a 20 or 30 year retirement. For near-retirees in Johnson City, Oak Ridge, Crossville, and across East Tennessee, understanding how to approach this decision — and having a coordinated plan behind it — can make an extraordinary difference in retirement security.

This guide covers what every Tennessee retiree needs to know about Social Security claiming strategies, including how your claiming decision interacts with Tennessee’s unique tax advantages and your broader retirement income plan.

Understanding your claiming window

You can begin claiming Social Security retirement benefits as early as age 62. Your full retirement age — the age at which you receive your complete, unreduced benefit — is 67 for anyone born in 1960 or later. And if you delay beyond your full retirement age, your benefit grows by approximately 8% per year until age 70, at which point growth stops.

That range — from 62 to 70 — represents an enormous spread in lifetime income. Claiming at 62 permanently reduces your benefit by up to 30% compared to your full retirement age benefit. Waiting until 70 increases it by 24% above your full retirement age benefit. Compared to claiming at 62, the difference can be as much as 76% more per month for the rest of your life.

For a Tennessee retiree with a monthly benefit of $2,200 at full retirement age, that gap translates to roughly $560 less per month if they claim at 62, or $528 more per month if they wait until 70. Over a 25-year retirement, the cumulative difference is substantial — and it is permanent.

Don’t forget about spousal and survivor benefits

For married couples, Social Security claiming strategy becomes significantly more complex — and significantly more important. The decisions each spouse makes affect not just their own income but the survivor benefit that will support whichever partner lives longer.

Here is why this matters: when one spouse passes away, the surviving spouse keeps the larger of the two Social Security benefits and loses the smaller one. That means the higher earner’s claiming decision has a direct and lasting impact on the financial security of the surviving spouse — potentially for decades.

A common and effective strategy for married couples is for the higher-earning spouse to delay claiming as long as possible, ideally to age 70, while the lower-earning spouse claims earlier to provide income in the meantime. This maximizes the survivor benefit and provides a larger guaranteed income floor for whoever lives longer.

For couples in East Tennessee approaching this decision together, working through the math with a fee-only fiduciary advisor — one who has no incentive to recommend one approach over another — ensures the strategy is built around your specific ages, health, income sources, and goals rather than a generic rule of thumb.

How Tennessee’s tax structure affects your Social Security strategy

Tennessee’s no state income tax policy means your Social Security benefits are not taxed at the state level. That is a meaningful advantage compared to the many states that do tax Social Security income.

However, federal taxes on Social Security benefits are a different matter — and they are something every Tennessee retiree needs to understand before they claim.

Whether your Social Security benefits are subject to federal income tax depends on your combined income, which the IRS calculates as your adjusted gross income plus non-taxable interest plus half of your Social Security benefits. If that combined income exceeds $32,000 for married couples filing jointly, a portion of your benefits becomes taxable. Above $44,000, up to 85% of your benefits can be subject to federal income tax.

This is where the interaction between your Social Security claiming decision and your retirement withdrawal strategy becomes critically important. Withdrawing heavily from traditional 401(k) or IRA accounts in the same years you are receiving Social Security can push your combined income above these thresholds — triggering what financial planners sometimes call the tax torpedo. A coordinated plan that sequences your withdrawals thoughtfully can minimize this risk and preserve more of your Social Security income.

What to do before you file

Claiming Social Security is one of the few financial decisions that truly cannot be undone. You have a limited window to withdraw your application after filing, and once that window closes, the decision is permanent. That reality makes the preparation you do beforehand more valuable than almost anything else.

Before you file, it is worth sitting down with a fee-only fiduciary advisor to walk through your full retirement income picture — your account balances, expected expenses, other income sources, health considerations, and legacy goals. From that complete picture, you can model different claiming scenarios and understand the actual dollar impact of claiming at 62 versus 67 versus 70, given your specific situation.

At Roan Capital Partners, we guide East Tennessee families through Social Security claiming decisions as part of a comprehensive retirement income plan. Because we operate on a fee-only model, our only incentive is to help you make the decision that produces the best outcome for your family — not the one that generates a commission for us.

The bottom line

Social Security is not just a benefit — it is a lifelong income stream that you have spent decades earning. The decision of when to claim it deserves the same care and attention you would give to any major financial decision. For East Tennessee near-retirees, getting this right is one of the highest-value steps you can take toward a retirement that is secure, tax-efficient, and built to last.

The right claiming strategy will look different for every family. What remains consistent is the value of approaching it with a complete picture, a coordinated plan, and guidance from an advisor who is entirely on your side.