Just a few additional thoughts. One of the biggest misconceptions is that if you take early retirement, you are in the minority. You're not. Don't remember the exact numbers, but when I retired the majority of beneficiaries did start collecting before full retirement age (FRA). Some of these articles in financial publications make you think that your crazy if you collect before FRA. Couldn't disagree more. There are lots of great reasons to collect early retirement. One is dead people don't collect benefits. I remember a guy in his late 40s coming into the office. He was there to complain that his father, a widower, had delayed filing after he retired to get a higher benefit. He dropped dead before he had a chance to collect. The son was there to complain that somebody (like him, the son) should be able to get the money his father paid into SSA. Doesn't work that way. Had the father filed earlier, he could have collected and enjoyed the money, or even passed it on to his son. Once he is dead, that's it.

Financial advisors will crank the math. They can show how to maximize total money over an expected length of life factoring in taxes, RMDs, SS, inflation, historical stock market performance, etc.

But that is just cold math. There are many human factors to consider. Being informed is a good thing, but in the end it is about what gives you peace of mind. Do you need the cash now? Will the cash now help you have a better retirement during the first years when your health is likely to be good? Do you enjoy your job and want to keep working indefinitely? Do you get joy out of maximizing the long term monies?

Don't get caught up in the math and the guesses that go into it such as how long you might live. Math is just one of many important factors.

quote:

Originally posted by saigonsmuggler:
Another big issue is what about medical insurance? If I retire before 65, I won't have Medicare. I guess a low earning job with insurance should be OK but then that's not really enjoying life and do things that I love.

Or you can have a Roth account where withdrawals do not trigger an income report or cash savings enough so that you can control your income before Medicare. If you can keep your reportable income low enough for the number of people in your household, you can pay zero in medical premiums for the best healthcare available via Obamacare. The subsidies decrease at 400% of the poverty rate at which point, your premiums are limited to 8.5% of your annual income.

quote:

Originally posted by Fed161:
Just a few additional thoughts. One of the biggest misconceptions is that if you take early retirement, you are in the minority. You're not. Don't remember the exact numbers, but when I retired the majority of beneficiaries did start collecting before full retirement age (FRA). Some of these articles in financial publications make you think that your crazy if you collect before FRA. Couldn't disagree more. There are lots of great reasons to collect early retirement. One is dead people don't collect benefits. I remember a guy in his late 40s coming into the office. He was there to complain that his father, a widower, had delayed filing after he retired to get a higher benefit. He dropped dead before he had a chance to collect. The son was there to complain that somebody (like him, the son) should be able to get the money his father paid into SSA. Doesn't work that way. Had the father filed earlier, he could have collected and enjoyed the money, or even passed it on to his son. Once he is dead, that's it.

I've known a half dozen guys who never made it to 62, let alone older.

I signed up the day I was eligible.

This is quite a topic and there probably is NOT one good answer only.

I will be 65 in a couple of months. I could have started Social Security when I was 62 but crunched numbers and decided not to.

I have friends and associates and family members who were so burned out they decided to quit their shops, hated the jobs and the boss even more, at the age of 62. Well guess what! They were not able to financially live on that meager amount and went back to work, and things just didn't work out how well they thought it would. TThey used ALL of the age 62 amount of money to try to live on, and are now stuck with that monthly amount instead of the higher amounts that you get as time goes by to the age of the magic age 65 and past that to the Full Retirement Age. (I understand hating a job and hating the boss even more, but you really need to make your decision on a financial basis).

I have decided, because of the crazy inflation we have today, to not wait to the age of 66 and 1/2 (my so-called full retirement age) and I will file very soon to start drawing my SS in a couple of months when I am 65.

My deciding factor was this: I will be on Medicare in a couple of months, and the cost of Part B plus the cost of a Supplement and the cost of the Part D drug plan would strain my existing monthly budget too much. I estimate my monthly Medicare costs to be somewhere between $350-400 bucks a month, so I am going to use my SS to fund that, and just bank the rest of the monthly SS deposit.

Best wishes for all who are in this situation, for many of us it is very hard to make the decision to finally pull the plug as our personal situations are all different.

I signed up at 62 for the simple reason that I did not expect to live much longer... 2 months before I had a massive heart attack. The one that is supposed to drop you fast and you don't come back... but something in the universe got wonky and I lived (total blockage of my main artery for 2 hours) I don't regret signing on early... that was three years ago and I'm still here... but you have to run the numbers and decide.

Take it early; before it's squandered on illegal aliens.

Thanks for all the replies, especially 6guns and Fed161. I did a search before I posted but didn’t see the earlier thread- maybe I didn’t go back far enough.

My conclusions are as follows:
a) if you’re going to continue working past 62 earning more than the threshold ($26k?),then wait to start collecting because you get royally screwed on the additional income;
b) for me, and I think the majority of people (from my research), the math works out to about a 10 year breakeven point past your full retirement age. If I start collecting at 62 instead of 67, I’d be 77 before the amounts even out, at which point I’d be better off if I had waited- EXCEPT that doesn’t take into account inflation, the present value of money versus future value, or the ability to earn any return on the money taken during those five years.

Considering inflation and the present value of money, I am inclined to start taking it at 62. Fortunately, my work situation as a business owner is such that I can just pay myself rent instead of salary, and that is not earned income that would reduce my benefits. At least that is my understanding- rental income, capital gains, interest, dividends, etc, do not trigger that reduction in benefits.

is their some provision in SS code that a spouse can collect another spouse's benefit if they are both alive.
Someone here mentioned that in a previous post. They probably were talking about something different.

If both spouses are collecting SS, when one dies the surviving spouse collects the larger amount, the smaller amount goes away.

quote:

Originally posted by old rugged cross:
is their some provision in SS code that a spouse can collect another spouse's benefit if they are both alive.
Someone here mentioned that in a previous post. They probably were talking about something different.

If your question is can a wife and an ex-wife both collect benefits off a man's SS record, the answer is yes. As long as the ex meets the duration of marriage requirement (10 years) both can collect. Neither the spouse or ex-spouses benefit is reduced because both are collecting.

Side note for any attorneys reading this who practice family law. Make sure you inform your clients of the duration of marriage requirement. I remember one lady who got a divorce after 9 years and 10 months. Later on when she found out the consequences of the date of divorce, she raised quite a stink with her attorney.

Tangent about the spouse issue.

My wife collects full SS amount as she has disability. I plan to collect at 62and my monthly will be less than hers.

If she passes before me, can I get her higher amount of does the fact hers is SSDI change that?

My plan, such as it is, is to collect SS and Medicare in one more year, when I'll be 65. Not early, but not at full age either. I may continue to work, but part time.

quote:

Originally posted by Fed161:

The single most powerful political constituency in the country is in my view seniors. Not sure what you mean by "screw with the benefits." Once you start collecting, that's it. That's your benefit rate for life. Of course you will have cost of living increases. Cutting SS benefits for seniors already collecting would be a political death sentence for any politicians who vote for it. If SSA runs out of money, the treasury will print whatever they need.

That's reassuring … I think.

I worry more about possible hyperinflation on the order of the Weimar Republic or Zimbabwe eating up the payment rather than whether the system will be solvent.

I retired two years ago at 62. My financial advisor recommended waiting until I turn 70. My Wife is 5 years younger and still working. We have not had to touch our investments and have been living off her salary and what was in our bank accounts. I will most likely start collecting when wife retires.

quote:

I worry more about possible hyperinflation on the order of the Weimar Republic or Zimbabwe eating up the payment rather than whether the system will be solvent.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
You should not there is a COLA every year. {Cost of living adjustment.) For next year it is nearly 10 percent.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:

quote:

I worry more about possible hyperinflation on the order of the Weimar Republic or Zimbabwe eating up the payment rather than whether the system will be solvent.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
You should not there is a COLA every year. {Cost of living adjustment.) For next year it is nearly 10 percent.

And Medicare costs will probably increase as well .

I too worry about hyperinflation. China and Russia are both major threats to our country's future, but so is an economic collapse.

quote:

And Medicare costs will probably increase as well .

^^^^^^^^^^^^
It does not have a COLA. Those MA programs are costing plenty while enriching the Insurance companies. They were supposed to save the government money.

quote:

Originally posted by 911Boss:
Tangent about the spouse issue.

My wife collects full SS amount as she has disability. I plan to collect at 62and my monthly will be less than hers.

If she passes before me, can I get her higher amount of does the fact hers is SSDI change that?

Yes you can. The fact that she was a disability beneficiary is irrelevant.

quote:

Originally posted by OKCGene:

I have friends and associates and family members who were so burned out they decided to quit their shops, hated the jobs and the boss even more, at the age of 62. Well guess what! They were not able to financially live on that meager amount and went back to work, and things just didn't work out how well they thought it would. TThey used ALL of the age 62 amount of money to try to live on, and are now stuck with that monthly amount instead of the higher amounts that you get as time goes by to the age of the magic age 65 and past that to the Full Retirement Age. (I understand hating a job and hating the boss even more, but you really need to make your decision on a financial basis).

I've seen a number of people who ended up in this situation and have trouble understanding why they didn't crunch the numbers before pulling the plug.

2 years before retiring, we started living strictly on Mrs. Flash's wages from her job and nothing else. I'd crunched the numbers and figured it would work fine, but I wanted to see it in action. So we invested my income and lived on hers and lived just fine.

So I pulled the plug. Turns out I did make a mistake and that was in not realizing how much cheaper it was to live in the state we were retiring to so we had a lot more money than I thought we would.