I visit the SSA site regularly and have used their interactive tool to calculate benefits.

I started a thread a while ago about a bridge health insurance plan to over me until I reach 65. So far in my research, the lowest plan I can find is about $600/mo, with a high deductible. That may have to do. COBRA is $800/mo and of course only lasts for 18 months.

I value the comments about taking the benefits while I'm more active and healthier and able to better use it. I do want to travel more and I'm sure as I get older, that'll become less. I'm also intrigued by the idea of buying some gold or precious metal regularly of offset inflation.

I am now 86, I retired just short of my 63rd birthday, before I had intended to do so. I received a buyout offer and would have been required to relocate had I not accepted the offer.
I signed up for SS immediately.

That was a bad decision which I have since regretted. I did not really need the money but I thought of it as a bird in hand at the time.

Actuarial Stats indicate that your life expectancy is good at 65-67.


So my advice for what its worth, is to is to wait as long as practical.

I took mine at age 62, the very first opportunity I had to take it. I had retired a little more than two years earlier and was pretty sure I was never gonna work as a lawyer again.

My wife, on the other hand, waited till she was 66 and took it then, but she worked right up to that 66th birthday.

Both of us considered it carefully=she wanted to work past 62 and made good money, so taking it really wasn't an option.

CPA told me I had to live into my 80s (don't recall where in the 80s as I was laughing too hard) to make up for not taking it at 62. But I knew the chances of me living anywhere near that long was remote at best, so it was a no brainer for me.

It's all in what you want to do-hold off if there's a chance you'll work and make descent money up to 66 or really retire at 62 and not work a bit like the me.

I think both my wife and I made the right decisions.

Bob

As many others have said, I took mine at 62 and for most of the same reasons.

I actually quit my job 60 days before my first check, cut expenses to the bone and lived solely off my military retirement until SS kicked in.

Thanks to one of my cow-irkers, it was that, stroke out or go to jail for choking the shit out of someone that richly deserved it.

Don't regret a second of it.

its actuarially a wash. so you win or lose based on your individual mortality. And if you can predict that then you know what you should do. Otherwise its all your circumstances. Need the money get it. don't need the money defer.

Unless something changes (and it easily could, I’m 48) I’ll take mine at the first opportunity. Men in my family rarely make it past 70.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
It is about your health and money. The amount you get from Social Security increases until 70. You pay a substantial penalty retiring before your full retirement age.

Certainly true but if you die early lets say 75 you screwed yourself out of alot of YOUR $$. I was debt free had investments and a pension. I was able to retire at 59 1/2 and took it right away.

67, still work, started taking it at 66 so they would not ding me for the money I make.

quote:

You pay a substantial penalty retiring before

This is simply not true. If you mean you get reduced benefits versus deferring that would be true, but you get them longer. At an actuarial level its a wash. Now there are some caveats along the way that are individual issues but a population level its all a wash.

Mine starts in January. I turned 62 in August.

Bird in the hand....

My dad died at 63, I took SS at 62! I also had over 40 yrs at GM so a pretty fair pension helps out.

I turn 60 early next year. If I work 3 more years, I will get the max of a 25 year LE pension. I work for a small department, so it’s not like I’ll be rolling in the dough. But, my wife and I did pay off our mortgage this year.

In two years, when I turn 62, I’m going to add the amount of my pension (24 of 25 years) and the amount I will get from my SS. If that amount is to my satisfaction, then I’ll retire and file for SS.

I know waiting until I’m 67 or older will give me more money, but I want to enjoy my retirement because who knows how long any of us will live.

I will be 63 in March. As others have said, the cost of health care until Medicare kicks in is a roadblock right now. No real big chronic conditions but the wife and I have still had a few surgeries between us in the last couple years (Knee replacements, gall bladder). With good genes on both sides I am sitting tight for the next couple years.

quote:

Originally posted by sigmonkey:
If you can live and be content with the amount of income, and your your emplyment is not your dream job that you would be unfulfilled if you left it, do it early and get on with enjoying your life, and do the things that provide happiness.

You will be surprised as the exponential loss of mobility, sharpness of mind and all the things that degrade over time, and if the 8% is not that important, the money you gain will never offset the loss of time or health that you can ever get back.

The Monkey speaks for me.
Went out at 62, I am almost 70. Life and it’s a aches and troubles will in a short order make travel a fun thing not much longer. Much less than the extra $ in 8 + yrs will be worth. Look to you and your parents history of health not just how long they were or are here. Quality of life does not stay static. The old saying “If you have your health you have everything enters the equation.

Both my wife and I retired on the same day in 2005. I was 65 and she was 66. We both started our SS then and began drawing from our 401k. No regrets at all. House and cars were paid for at that point and we've lived well......so far.

quote:

Originally posted by mrvmax:
Actuaries figure it out, it will even out over time and unless you die young you’ll get the same amount either way. I’m taking mine at 62.

Me too, backed up by professional advice.
I’m willing to bet I’m not living to 90. And willing to take the hit if I do!

Take it early. If you end up living a non poverty existence they may take it away from you

Other factors to consider is IRMAA aka Income Related Monthly Adjustment Amounts.

When you start collecting on your IRAs (mandated by the IRS at 71.5 years of age if you haven't done so earlier), your income will rise and with the IRMAA your monthly social security benefit will decrease.

And of course you'll have Medicare Part B premiums subtracted as well.

quote:

Originally posted by Fla. Jim:

quote:

Originally posted by sigmonkey:
If you can live and be content with the amount of income, and your your emplyment is not your dream job that you would be unfulfilled if you left it, do it early and get on with enjoying your life, and do the things that provide happiness.

You will be surprised as the exponential loss of mobility, sharpness of mind and all the things that degrade over time, and if the 8% is not that important, the money you gain will never offset the loss of time or health that you can ever get back.

The Monkey speaks for me.
Went out at 62, I am almost 70. Life and it’s a aches and troubles will in a short order make travel a fun thing not much longer. Much less than the extra $ in 8 + yrs will be worth. Look to you and your parents history of health not just how long they were or are here. Quality of life does not stay static. The old saying “If you have your health you have everything enters the equation.

Sigmonkey and Fla. Jim said it for me! Job, job environment, and a major health happening, caused me to go on SS at 62. Wife stayed a few more years,we downsized, moved time here we wanted to be, and do not regret anything.

We are still working and hit full retirement age in late spring, we elected to start taking our Social Security since we were not subject to any earnings limitations and helps our retirement preparations.....