And at 70 my body is slowing down.
Taking it in 4 months at 65 and retiring
I started last year at 64. I am using the money to pay off all of our remaining debts and stashing some away. I don’t regret it for a second. I love getting up in the morning and knowing that I owe no one, anything.
“I took SS at 62, don’t regret it at all”
Ditto. I get people waiting until 65, but 70, nope. I know too many people who either died shortly after turning 70 or were diagnosed with a serious illness at 70. Take the money and enjoy life while you can.
I’m not close to Soc. Sec. age yet, but I operate under the general premise: “a promise from politicians means nothing, so its better to get what you can, as soon as you can”
I waited until 70 ... Excellent move ... Extremely happy ...
I retired at age 65 in 2018 and took my benefits right away. No regrets on my part.
I decided to take SS at 65 which I turned less than 1 month ago, I get my first direct deposit in June.
In the article, the person featured talked about consider your health if you wait until 70 to take SS, I had open heart surgery in June of last year, about 11 months ago, that experience went a long way to me deciding to take SS now instead of waiting any longer.
I don’t think there is any totally wrong answer on when to take SS, everyone’s situation is different in terms of their health, financial situation, etc., take it when you think you need it and don’t look back, you worked for it, the money is supposed to be yours.
Take the money as soon as you can. While you bring in less for early 60s withdrawal, if you wait until you are 70 you have 5 to 8 years of earnings to make up for and probably will be in your 80s before you are actually making more money for having waited.
The advice to wait is, I believe, for the benefit of the government and not the worker.
It all depends. The thing many fail to take into account: Add up all the checks you would receive in the extra five or seven years if you began drawing SS dso at 62 or 65 rather than 70. Does the extra you get at 70 more than make up for all of that over your remaining years? It all depends on what you think your life expectancy is and a number of other factors.
bkmk
Same here, as soon as I could retire with full benifits I did.
When I was eligible for SSA I did.
Everybody thinks they are going to live forever so they get greedy and hold out for more SSA money.
The truth is, none of us know how much time we have on this earth and we are not garranteed one more minute.
Also, as someone else said, you wait too long you may not be healthy enough to enjoy whst you held out for.
Dad retired at 62 and died at 70.
I retired at 62 and at 78 am still going strong. No one knows how long they will live so retire at 62 and enjoy wile you can.
The original plan for Social Security was you could retire at 62. Average life span was 57 years, so the government would never have to pay out for many.
The place I worked closed one month after I hit 62. Didn’t feel like job searching at that age, and didn’t want to touch my retirement investments. Three years and counting, solar so good.
I was still earning too much money to collect any sooner than 66 and two months. High class problem to have, but took it as soon as I could. I did that math and calculated I would need to live to 84 to collect all that I put in. I’ll be drooling in a cup, pooping myself and chasing after every woman I see at that age.
I started SS at 62 and have taken out more than I paid in.
Sorry folks, but I never expected to live this long.
I am a little over 60 years old and am in very good physical condition for my age. I walked 190 miles in two weeks last year on a job step challenge.
I am going to work until I am 69 because I vest for a pension then. I retired from another job two years ago and get a small pension for that.
I am either going to take mine at 62 or 65, but cannot fully decide at the moment.
This is an interesting thread to read for some of us slightly younger folks. We don’t learn much about this stuff and it will probably get sprung on us all at once some day.
Seems like most of the commenters don’t regret starting early, and I have taken note.
The one thing that gives me pause is that, although fate can befall any of us at any time, there is a lot of longevity in my family tree. Almost all of my fore-bearers lived to their 80s and 90s.
Do your social security benefits actually end or get drained if you live long enough?
I depends upon a person’s employment income. I have worked for over 40 years helping people to retire and still get income from their businesses.
Rent on the business property is the easiest as rental income does not have a Social Security offset.
I’ve actually gone into appointments with clients to get them Social Security.
One should NEVER retire early due to health reasons. Go the disability route and get full benefits and Medicare after 2 years on disability.
Generally, it takes about 12 years of collecting the higher benefits rather than collecting early. Under the old laws, if you retired at 62, you got a 20% reduction in benefits. However, that means you collected 80% for 36 months.
80% x 36 months ÷ 20% = 144 months or 12 years just to collect the deferred benefits.
The calculation is a bit more complicated under the new laws with full retirement at age 67.
I took it immediately at 62. My family mostly dies before age 80. I wanted some “stupid” money. That is, if we pay a parking ticket or misplace something and buy another one, it’s no big deal. Aisle seat on the airplane? No problem. Peace of mind is the goal, and this helps. We cannot squeeze a nickel as hard as we used to. And, thank God, we do not seem to need to.