CPP Timing: 60, 65 or 70?
The single biggest CPP decision is when to start. Taking it early shrinks the cheque 36%; waiting to 70 grows it 42%. This tool compares lifetime payouts, finds your breakeven age, and names the best start age for how long you expect to live.
Cumulative CPP received by age
Total real dollars collected if you start at 60, 65 or 70. Where a later line crosses above an earlier one is that pair's breakeven age.
Lifetime total by start age
Everything you'd collect from each start age through your life expectancy. The tallest bar is the winner for this lifespan.
Every start age, 60 to 70
Monthly benefit, lifetime total to your life expectancy, and breakeven vs starting at 65. The highlighted row is the best start age.
| Start age | Monthly | vs 65 | Lifetime total | Breakeven vs 65 |
|---|
How this is calculated
The adjustment factors (0.6% and 0.7%)
Your monthly CPP at a chosen start age is your age-65 amount times an adjustment factor. Start early and it drops 0.6% × months before 65 — up to −36% at 60. Start late and it rises 0.7% × months after 65 — up to +42% at 70. So monthly benefit = base₆₅ × factor(age), where factor(60) = 0.64 and factor(70) = 1.42.
Why this is a "real" (inflation-indexed) analysis
CPP is fully indexed to the Consumer Price Index every January, so its purchasing power holds over time. That means we can compare start ages in today's dollars without guessing at inflation — the cheque you get at 85 buys the same as the cheque today. Cumulative total = Σ monthly benefit over every month you're alive from your start age to your life expectancy.
The breakeven age
The breakeven between two start ages is the age where the later, larger pension has paid out as much in total as the earlier, smaller one. With a 0% return that's roughly age 74 for 60-vs-65 and age 82 for 65-vs-70. Live longer than the breakeven and waiting wins; live shorter and starting early wins.
Investing the early payments
If you'd invest each early cheque rather than spend it, set a real (after-inflation) return. We grow the accumulated benefits monthly at (1 + real%)^(1/12) − 1. A positive return makes money-in-hand-now more valuable, pushing every breakeven age later and tilting the answer toward starting early. At 0% the tool compares plain totals.
The 8.4%/yr "guaranteed return" framing
Deferring from 65 to 70 raises your pension 8.4% per year (0.7%/mo × 12), on top of inflation indexing. No annuity or bond offers a guaranteed, inflation-protected 8.4% — which is why healthy people with other income to bridge the gap often come out ahead by waiting.
The 2019 enhancement
CPP is being enhanced: contributions since 2019 gradually raise the maximum benefit to about one-third of covered earnings for people retiring in later decades. Your own My Service Canada estimate already reflects your enhanced entitlement — use the Custom option and enter it for the most accurate result.
GIS interaction (important for low income)
The Guaranteed Income Supplement is income-tested and clawed back at roughly 50¢ per dollar of other income. A bigger CPP cheque can reduce or wipe out GIS, so for seniors who will rely on GIS the "obvious" advice to defer can backfire. This tool models CPP alone — get advice if GIS is in play.
OAS deferral (one-liner)
Old Age Security has its own separate deferral: +0.6%/month (+36% at 70), but it is not reduced for starting early because OAS can't start before 65. See the retirement planner to model CPP, OAS and your portfolio together.
What this doesn't model
Income tax on benefits, the CPP post-retirement benefit if you keep working, survivor/disability provisions, the drop-in provisions in your own benefit calculation, and GIS/OAS-clawback interactions. It compares CPP start-age timing only.