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I worked three years after I turned 66, had it going into savings, still do since I retired. I’m lucky I have two other pensions, able to save mine.

I took mine at 65 and 4mo. I was kind of forced into it for work reasons. My full retirement age was 66 and 6 mo. I wouldn't go backwards till I'm 84. I will roll the dice. I think close to 2 thirds take it at 62

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My wife is a CPA of 30+ years and she advised me to start SS as soon as I was eligible. In her experience she had seen too many people that held out to collect more but didn’t live long enough to make it pay off. I took her advise.
She is also collecting SS and still working full time.

I retired at 59.5yrs with a pension.I took my S.S. at 62yrs.Everyone's situation is different.My pension is a bit higher than my S.S.,so once I started collecting it,S.S. became a bonus to my income.If your S.S. is going to be your only source of income,by all means if you are able to keep working,work as long as you can.I would also recommend trying to be debt free when you do retire.Also you have to pay taxes on your S.S. as well as pay for Medicare once you reach 65yrs,so keep those things in mind because it's going to reduce your S.S. income by several hundred dollars.

I turn 70 this month but my phone interview isn't until November. I'm guessing I'll get around $3000 a month.

kwg

I hope to work past my full SS retirement age of 66 1/2. Taking benefits early would not be worth much due to the earnings penalty.

In our case, I’d like to max out the monthly benefit by drawing late. My wife will likely outlive me and, as a surviving spouse, can then draw my (larger) amount rather than her own. One size does definitely NOT fit all when it comes to this decision.

At what age did your wife begin to draw SS benefits? It seems that her earnings as a CPA would slash her benefits if she were to draw early. 🤔

My mom took it at 62 . She was told that she would get less but it would take 18 yrs. to come out even. She figured she would worry about it when she turned 80 yrs. old. She is now 85 and would have been better off waiting. However, I dont think this takes into consideration that if she invests it she may come out ahead and may never come out ahead if she waits. it is hard to say what will happen, however, she is getting 5% on the money she gets . As for me, I am taking it as soon as I can and that is 62. At 63 , I will get my carpenters pension but it is only $800 a month. As of now, I am getting $2,200 a mont in dividends in my personal investments so I should be ok, but I will never live much better than a bare minimum life style, and I dont have to.

I started at 66.

I waited until full retirement age to take mine.
At soon to be 71, I enjoy everything I do - and the money is pretty good.
Should pay off the ranch this spring, that'll help.
Kids should get it without any "encumbrances".

Most important question:
Do you have family, grandkids, children, siblings?

My dad turned 60 in June. He had a mild heart attack that got his attention before fall.
In fact, he went back to work in December. Boss told him, "If you don't feel like working, let me know! You can layoff anytime you need to."
In January, he and I talked.
I encouraged him to go ahead and retire.
"If I retire at 60, the job pays 25% of Medicaid and I pay 75%. If I wait until I turn 61, I pay 25% and the job pays 75%."
Pop would have turned 61 on August 1st. He had a massive heart attack and passed in June!
He used to brag, "When I retire, I'm gonna wet a hook in every lake in Texas!"
My youngest was 18 months. My wife was pregnant with our second. He never got to know that one.
My sister had two boys and a girl that though grampa hung the moon.
I nearly died in a head on car wreck in 1991.

I am a VERY strong advocate of retiring as soon as you can.
Memories made with family is way more important that money.
I was able to retire early.
No, we don't have a lot of money, but anytime I want to spend time with family or friends, I can!

Forgot about T.G.!
Right out of high-school, he went to work for a power company.
Over the years, he bought and paid for a house, a farm, his kids education,etc....
At 52, he figured that he could retire. He could have worked until 60 or 65, but thought of the "life" he would miss out on!
He does stuff with his grandkids that most of us only dream of.......and has now for nearly 20 years!

If you're good with Excel or just a pencil and paper, work out how much you'd make annually based on your benefits for each year if started at ages 65 through 70. You'll find that you're many dollars ahead to take a somewhat lesser amount earlier. Just a few calculations can tell you the optimum age to start based on your situation.

Just as an example, say someone starts drawing $3,000 per month at age 66. That's $36,000 per year. By age 70 they'd already have made $144,000 - which could have been invested to increase that.

If they start at 70 let's say they make $3600 per month or $43,200 annually. Based on a difference of $7,200 per year, and already being behind by $144,000, they'd have to live another 20 years just to have the same total amount of money they'd have if started at 66.

This doesn't take into account income tax (f*cking tax on a tax, f*ck the government!) or Medicare deductions or COLA raises, but in any scenario you work out, sacrificing a little less per month earlier will put you many thousands of dollars ahead until you are in your mid-80's or well beyond.



Again, everyone is different. Based on when I started, my break even point would have been age 87 after which age I intend to invest in red sports cars and 23 year old girlfriends until I put myself into an early grave...

^^^^This!!^^^^

I've know people in the past that continued to work, not realizing that retirement would pay them more than working! 😖

Man, do I ever agree.

I had my quarterly meeting with my Fidelity guy today. Productive as all get out. I opened a 529 for my grandson (16 mos) and once my grandaughter (6 weeks) gets a SSN I will open the same. A chunk of our SS will likely head to those accounts.

It's this right here that damn simple. I went at 65 and 2 months 1 year short of full ss retirement age. Once your on Medicare at 65 there is no reason not to retire. By working an extra year to full retirement age would have gained me another $120 a month ss benefit. But you look at the 40,000 in benefits forfeited for that year it takes a lot of years to gain that back. That was 3 years ago, still glad I hung it up.mb

a lot of my friends did not make it to 70. they try to get you to wait until 70 by tempting you with the increase of the payments. truthfully they probably hope most people die before 70 to save them the money. anyway after 70 you could be not able to really enjoy the money due to medical issues

A 62 y/o American man has a life expectancy of 20 years. This, of course, is an average. An objective look at one’s health status and family history will give a good basis on which way to bet. A functioning crystal ball is, unfortunately, quite rare. 🫤

You will find only the newer younger advisors tell you to wait. Just what you would expect from years of government schooling .They want you to die w/o ever getting a dime. Then the gov. can give it to an illegal on welfare.

IMO "Financial Advisors " are about as relevant as "Home Inspector's" are to mortgages..

Find an Accountant you can trust, and an Estate Attorney

the average life span of a US male is 77 some live longer most dont. Boomers lol they think they will live forever I guess it is human instinct