How to Create Social Security Break Even Calculator in Excel: 6 Methods

Method 1 – Insert Primary Information

Insert basic information to compare two ages and 100% benefits in the dataset.

Method 2 – Calculate the Total Months

Insert two new rows to calculate the total months in the dataset.

Go to cell D5 and put in the following formula.

=$B5*12+$C5

This will help you find the benefit percentage based on the age at which you took retirement. Expand this formula to the end.

Put another formula for cell I6 and I7.

=$G6*12+$H6

Method 3 – Find out Benefit Percentage

Use the VLOOKUP function to calculate the benefit percentage at different retirement ages.

Put the following formula on cells J6 and J7.

For cell J6:

=VLOOKUP($I6,$D$5:$E$101,2,FALSE)

For cell J7:

=VLOOKUP($I7,$D$5:$E$101,2,FALSE)

We successfully find out the percentage from the list at different retirement ages.

Method 4 – Calculate Cumulative Social Security Benefit

Here, the 1st retirement age is 63 years and 2 months. The person will benefit in the next month, which is 63 years and 3 months. After that, this will continue for a lifetime.

Apply a formula on cell O6 to get the cumulative benefit for the 1st retirement age.

=IF($I$6<=($M5*12+$N5),$K$6*$J$6+$O5,0)

Expand this formula to the last. We used the IF function in this formula.

Use another similar formula on cell P6 for the cumulative benefit at 2nd retirement age.

=IF($I$7<=($M5*12+$N5),$K$6*$J$7+$P5,0)

Expand this to the last cell.

Method 5 – Insert Data in a Chart to Find the Break-Even Point

Add a new column named Level for year-defining value.

Select the whole data from the three columns Age 1, Age 2, and Level.
Go to the Insert tab.
Choose the Line option from the Charts group.

Look at the following chart. Here, we will change the data of the horizontal axis.
Choose the horizontal axis and press the right button of the mouse.
Click the Select Data option from the menu.

Select Data Source window appears.
Choose the Level option from the Legend Entries section.
Choose the Edit option from the Horizontal Axis Labels section.

Choose the Level column as the Axis label range.
Press the OK button.

Look at the chart now.

The chart will give us an idea of the break-even point, but we have to find it manually from the chart or the dataset.

Method 6 – Find Out the Break-Even Point

Add a new column in the dataset. Put a formula on cell R5.

=IF(IF(AND(O5<>0,P5<>0),O5-P5,"N/A")<>"N/A",ABS(O5-P5),"N/A")

This formula uses the nested IF function to find the absolute values of the difference between the benefits of age 1 and age 2. We added a condition that when Age 1 and Age 2 are both 0, the subtraction formula will not be applied.

Formula Breakdown:

AND(O5<>0,P5<>0)

It follows two conditions. Check if O5 and P5 are not equal to 0.
Result: False.

IF(AND(O5<>0,P5<>0),O5-P5,”N/A”)

IF function returns the difference between O5 and P5 when fulfilling the condition. Otherwise returns “N/A”
Result: N/A.

IF(IF(AND(O5<>0,P5<>0),O5-P5,”N/A”)<>”N/A”,ABS(O5-P5),”N/A”)

IF function works based on the value of the previous section. If the value of the previous section is not equal to N/A, give the absolute value of the difference between cell O5 and P5, Otherwise, return N/A.
Result: N/A.