The only advice I would give is do not take social security early! It’s a big difference between taking it early, at full time etirement age or even taking it at 70 would give u 20-30% more than taking it early. If u live long, taking it no earlier than full retirement is the best move for u. Good luck to u...u r in a good position financially. There are many people living on much less than u have access to.
I really disagree with this advice. I started drawing at 62. I invest it, earning about 5% a year. I'm way ahead of where (almost twice) I'd be if I waited to 65 or 70.
Plus, since the world will end in 11 years, I'm in an infinitely better position.
That depends on how long you expect to live. Ask a financial planner to run the numbers on how long you have to live to recoup the foregone benefits in early retirement with taxes and inflation taken into account. There are no guarantees either way. If you don't need the cash flow from Social Security early retirement benefits, go ahead and delay … or consider taking the benefits and investing them appropriately. There's a lot to be said for cash in hand, especially since Social Security is unsustainable and means-testing of benefits and/or hidden changes in the benefit structure (e.g. changes in the COLA or discrete nudges to the income replacement rate) may well be in the future.
If you take SS early, the break even is about age 83 in absolute dollars. Its even longer than that if you include investment returns and factor in inflation. In other words, it is rarely financially beneficial to wait until full retirement to take SS.
Agreed. Though I did have a co-worker retire about 10 years back and he also took SS early - at the age of 62. He told me flat out that he didn't expect to even live to full retirement age so he was going to enjoy life while he could. He based that on being overweight, a heavy smoker and a heavy drinker.
He lasted about three years. So I guess he made the right decision in that regard. Though it's a shame he couldn't change some life habits to get in a few more years of fishing and golf.
Speaking for myself, I'm going to try and hang in there until I'm 70 so I can max out (still about 13 years away).
I disagree