Posted on 05/14/2025 12:38:15 PM PDT by where's_the_Outrage?
We’ve all heard the advice: Wait until you’re 70 to claim Social Security and you’ll get the biggest possible monthly check. Tim F., a retired healthcare worker from Arizona, followed this advice to the letter. But now, at 75, he’s having second thoughts.
GOBankingRates spoke with Tim to understand why he wishes he’d claimed his benefits earlier. His insights might just change the way you think about your own retirement plans.
Tim thought he was doing everything right.
“Everything you read says you should wait until 70 if you can,” he shared. “I guess I thought, well, I can, so I should. I didn’t stop to think about if that was actually the best plan for me.”
Tim likes larger monthly checks, but he’s not sure they were worth the price.
“Looking back, I would’ve wanted that extra money when my wife was still around.”.....
Tim doesn’t believe waiting until 70 is wrong for everyone. But he does have some advice for those trying to make this decision:
Consider your health. “Be realistic about how you might feel in 5 years,” said Tim.
Talk it over with your significant other. It’s not a good decision if it’s not made together.
Think about what you want to do in retirement. Travel? Spend time with grandkids? Take up knitting? Make a list and let your finances follow.
Look at your other income sources. Side hustles don’t have to end with retirement.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
I think the biggest overlooked factor is how quickly health can deteriorate or even crash after 60. In the last 5 years I’ve had multiple hospitalizations and surgeries which ten years ago I didn’t expect I’d ever have. Stress is a killer. That’s why I retire at 62.
I took at 62 also...and don’t regret. I needed it at the time as work changed at that point. I’m 80...But still worked until I was 72.
I started taking benefits when I was 62. Already got all my money back by the age of 71.
Same here. At 62.
Brother waited until he was 70. Got the shot and at 72 he was no longer collecting anything.
RE: Original plan for Soc. Sec.
The funding started with the premise that almost no one will live a really long time.
Life expectancy in 1940 at birth was 65.7 .
Those who retired at 65 in 1940 were expected to make it 11.9 more years for men and 13.4 years for women.
Note: The first Social Security check was issued on January 31, 1940, to Ida May Fuller, according to the Social Security Administration (.gov). Her annual income when she retired The was $2,484. Her Social Security check was for $22.54. The first ever paid out. She died at the age of 100.
I took it at my full retirement age 66.5. Between ss, rrr and state pension. Making more now than when I had to work.
Ozzi Nelson of Ozzie and Harriet TV show (14 seasons on TV) and father of Rick Nelson learned that almost everyone who retired and wrote an autobiography died not long afterward. He made new projects for himself to keep going. However, his autobiography came out in 1973 and he died from recurring cancer including in his liver in 1975.
Nelson and his wife were charter members of the Hollywood Republican Committee.
Side note. I read once that Harriet Nelson (they were lovingly together to the day he died) said when they were take a long drive of hours in California she noticed they would each have something to say and converse the whole trip. I noticed that about my late wife Joy and I after reading that. I miss her.
100%, exactly, spot on.
First of all, any *leaning* on Social Security is an exercise in futility. I’ve lived and planned - and continually pounded into my kids’ heads - ignore it for your long-term financial planning. Pretend it doesn’t exist. Save, invest, be wise with your money... and then when the day comes? Enjoy the unplanned. Focus on what you can directly, yourself, individually control.
Second, though - and I’ve mentioned this before... I wish our idiots in charge would start thinking outside the box on something like Social Security.
In particular, one idea I’ve long wanted - a bulk payout. The reality is yes - I’ve paid in a lot to Social Security. My employers have matched it. Whether one goes early/standard/delayed — I’d like to see the implementation of a bulk payout option. For purposes of Social Security as a program - which I don’t like, but accept as a fact of life - it would benefit the program generally. Get me off the actuarial rolls. I’d even look hard at a potential discount bulk payoff. I’ve planned our retirement such that a monthly SSA check is just honey.
So... make me a deal. Offer me a proposal. A one-time, lump sum payout. Again, using standard math and tables? It would benefit the supposed “trust fund”. Near-term math to resolve, but there are plenty of people who don’t *need* Social Security month-to-month. But - are “entitled” to it anyway. Get us off the rolls.
I know I’m pitching pipe dreams that go back further than Reagan and even Goldwater... but if we are at a point where there is an appetite for disruption? Here’s the chance. Let’s stop with the collectivist “entitlements” and at least start with offering folks at the backend some opt-outs. It will save the program money in the long-term, start to shift broader thinking away from reliance on government, and everybody wins!
I’m perfectly willing to accept that the reasonable math on such a plan wouldn’t be optimal for me - but like I said. I believe in personal responsibility and I’ve planned my life in a manner that when SSA collapses?
My gift to the socialists. I’ll take a haircut in exchange for direct access to my supposed tax “entitlement benefits” at a reduced rate but in the nearer term.
In my case, for various reasons, a $1,000 monthly payment at 62 wasn’t significant, but $2,000 at 70 (now $2,700 with cost of living and a high income year) was more so. With great health (17k steps daily, 1,500 miles/year biking, etc), and parents who lived in decent health to 93 (one still living), waiting until 70 seemed wiser. A contributing factor often ignored in these FR discussions, is that a surviving spouse can receive the higher payment, so that’s an added reason to delay my higher payout.
I say, all things being equal, take it as early as you.
The wife I both retired at 62. We took early SS and our pension at 62. I had worked since I was 15 years old meaning that I had put in 47 years in the workplace. After 47 years I was ready to retire. I don’t regret any of it. Besides, the workplace is nothing like it was 45 years ago.
You lost at least 4 years of monthly payments forever.
GMTA. I pulled social security at 62 as I don’t trust the government. They’ve jacked up age requirement since I started working.
That’s the entire point - “they” want people to wait longer and longer, so they pay out less and less (over time) -
One thing I annoy my friends about...
Don’t wait to convert a standard 401k to a Roth. It’s not something you can do in a year. You need to be thinking 5+ years ahead, plan for it, and manage it in an optimal fashion.
My best friend of 40 years waited till he was able to retire with his full benefits at 66 years and 6 months. The very next day, his wife and him were going to the boat to gamble some and celebrate his retirement. Some woman in a Ford F-350 dually crossed the line and killed my friend.
Pretty much all men on my father’s side of the family have an expiration date of 76 years old. That really tempers my thoughts on the matter. I’m only 20 years from that now... and with my “SS Retirement” age being 67... I’m currently and will be funding other people’s retirement...
Dang Amigo ...
Mine died January but a Yrs into
Retirement.
.
RIP Aviator
Reading and viewing all the information and comments about when to take SS can be a hodgepodge of confusion and conflicting opinions. More like a gamble with unknowns re: life expectancy, health issues, financial needs, taxes, survivors benefits etc… The worst scenario is someone who works a lifetime and dies before collecting SS. If no surviving spouse the government gets to keep all that they paid in.
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