:: My friend warns me, “don’t wait too long”. ::
I put a ‘second’ on that.
Once I hit 66+8, I looked at my payout AND which political force was in the lead.
I decided to wait for the election results.
Last November, my monthly amount was barely enough to pay bills so I thought I would wait.
Then Trump started promising his no-tax list and I went for it on Jan 1, 2025.
Wife is still working and I don’t need any supplemental.
That contingency is baked in for when she retires.
Good to go!
66 +10 is my magic number, and that’s next year. I’m waiting until then, even though the investment gurus tell me to wait until 70. Trump won’t be president forever and there’s no telling what the leftists and RINOs will do to SS once they regain power.
Assuming the demise of the democrats is a bit premature. By all rights, they ought to be gone, but they have a very strong, deep game, they still own much of the media, they still have all kinds of government money being extracted (though that’s being taken down), they still have the globalist deep state on their side.
I’ll take what I can get from the system that owes me so much, before it’s screwed up again.
About five years ago, a former co-worker of mine (and an all-around good guy) passed away just as he was ready to retire. Of all the people who would have enjoyed himself after pulling the pin, he would have been in the front row. His being cut off prematurely from a well-earned retirement after so many years of service laid heavy on a couple of us who had worked with him.
His situation was one reason - fallout from covid mandates were another - that I decided a couple years later that I would bow out after my "66 plus pocket change," which date incidentally also celebrated 40 years in harness (which began after 4 years spent in the credentialing gulag). There are days I wish I had waited a bit longer, but most of the time I am just fine with my decision.