[Drango]

95% of all financial advisers recommend DELAYING taking SS till you reach 70. Why? Every year you wait, you get 8% return on your money. That’s a great return with almost zero risk.

[exit82]

That’s a great return with almost zero risk.

That's if you live to age 70. There is considerable risk you don't make it.

[usconservative]

95% of all financial advisers recommend DELAYING taking SS till you reach 70. Why? Every year you wait, you get 8% return on your money. That’s a great return with almost zero risk.

I wouldn't say there's almost zero risk. Every year one chooses to work rather than take their social security benefit (read that: take their money back!) is one more year the Government has to screw up Social Security even worse, reduce one's pay out, and one less year of enjoyment in retirement of their own money.

I choose to look at it this way: What will one's QUALITY OF LIFE be if they retire at 62, and will they be able to maintain that quality of life for minimum 25 years?

I suspect for most who continue working until 70 it'll be because they have to, rather than being in a position of having a high quality of life at 62 or even 65.

The reality is also that the longer each one of us is a tax PAYER into the system, the more Big Government likes it because it's one less year of "benefits" they have to pay.

Me, I'm 52 and retiring at 55 as soon as youngest son is out of high school. He'll have to spend a year living on his own and making his own way, but at least then he'll qualify for government grants to pay for his college. I've paid far too much into the system at this point to pay for his college. Let the Government do it. The bastards have stolen from me on average 38-50% of my income every year for the last 32 years. Time to get some of that money back.

BTW: I plan on filing at 62. Fact is I don't even need it at this point, but it's MY MONEY and I want it back!!

[KarlInOhio]

A money advisor I listen to on the radio says that SS has picked the exact amount of the decrease at 62 or increase by waiting until 70 to provide the same total money for someone who lives the expected life span at that age. So your choice is essentially betting on whether you will have a long life or not. If you have all sorts of medical problems at 62 take the money right away. On the other hand if you are healthy and have a long living family you should delay. There are some other considerations of the "file and defer" to maximize a couple's SS payments.

If you sign up and get to the very last paragraph you see this:

For me, the right question is, "Which alternative allows me to retire sooner?"

So in taking SS at 62 he isn't aiming for maximum expected return versus his expected lifespan. He's trying to hit a goal of how much he needs to retire and quit then.

(I did sign up through the temporary email service at mailinator.com, but they seem to be filtering out mailinator addresses so I had to use one of mailinator's alternate domains to sign up.)

[Stentor]

That’s a great return with almost zero risk.

As Rivera would say in the movie A Walk in the Sun, "Nobody dies".