Same here. I retired 10+ years ago and took it at the first opportunity. I spent uncle's money while my investments grew and grew.
As far as moving goalposts goes, the SS Trustees issue an annual report. For several years they have been warning that the "SS Trust Fund" will be completely depleted in the 2033-2034 time frame and benefits will have to be reduced to ~77% of current levels.
Over the past few years, the depletion date has kept getting sooner and sooner. The current date seems far in the future, but is actually within the expected lifespan of someone retiring today.
My personal opinion is that they will do nothing until a full blown crisis is on us, and then will add:
1. Even more means testing than they have now, and
2. Even higher SS taxes for those still working, and
3. Even less inflation adjustment of payments than we now have.
I strongly suspect that the means testing will be based on total net worth rather than retirement income. The reason is that government workers will be the only ones left with pensions in 14 years, and they are notoriously bad at saving for retirement. So, they will be exempted from the cuts by leaving their pensions out of the calculation.
When is welfare going to go broke?
To keep the pyramid going, you need to keep expanding the bottom. And since natives are not having large numbers of babies, the only way to do that is bring in young immigrants, and get them paying into SS.
Our great CPA and personal friend told me to sign up for the age 62 SS and to minimize my consulting and stay home more instead of dying in some airport trying to make flight connection.
I’m eighty now, so that was a good move and like you my SS and retirement $’s enabled me/us to maintain our 401k’s and IRA’s until mandatory minimum yearly withdrawals because of our age.
Our CPA advised my wife to do the same and go from working 4-5 days per week to 2-3. She negotiated with the doctors’s group my wife worked with re no health insurance from the group with my coverage of her with my retirement package to getting more $’s put into her 401k. We started an IRA for my wife to save more and to shield more income from taxes besides maxing out her 401 K donations from her and her bosses. That made sure, that she didn’t get penalized for making to much money while getting her SS.
We are waiting two years. It makes quite a difference in the payment. Not waiting until 66 though.