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Make your financial advisor do the math in front of you and see if you come to the same conclusion. In almost all cases it is questionable at the very least to wait until 70. For example. Full retirement age is 67 for anyone born after 1960. It is true that the payments would increase at an 8% per year rate until 70 if you wait that long.

But here is the rub. It would take approximately 12 years to breakeven if you wait until 70 to make up for the 3 years of SS that you passed up and that is not taking in account any time value of money. Bottom line is that you are not ahead "dollars wise" until you are 82 and I don't think hardly anyone that is 82 can say they could do the same things at that age that they could at 67.

Then you look at the average life expectancy in the USA. It is approximately 77 ish. Now tell me the value of waiting until 70?

Your wife is wise.

That doesn’t seem fair

The math should include investing the SS payments received until full retirement age, if you want to compare apples to apples.

If you’ll draw 2,500 per month on the early take schedule, that’s close to $100K added to your nest egg. If invested in the stock market, it should average at least a $750/month return by itself.

You might end up with more money per month AND a nice bump to your net worth.

I am well aware of that.

I'm 80, At my age 65 was the year I could collect my full SS, Retired at 58 and held off collecting SS at 62 mainly because I didn't need it.
and continued working .
During the pandemic, my income doubled and for some reason that increased my SS a nice bit after collecting it for 12 years, don't know why but it was nice.
Finally slowing down, my SS is my Mad Money now.

I am 62 as of last month and am going to sign up to start collecting in November. I Am retiring from my job in 2 weeks.
I figure to enjoy retirement while able to enjoy some of it. While I feel like going and doing things. I have other income and have been saving and investing for 42 years. We'll be good.

I spent two days on the phone and one day at a SocSec office!
THEY were relentless!

Doesn't seem "fair"?
SocSec and Gov't don't understand "fair"!

I took mine early and glad I did. Its a crap shoot trying to guess if you will ever live long enough to break even, by waiting till 70. And that's if there is even a social security by then.

I don't recall seeing any real mention of income in these discussions regarding when to start collecting SS. My income is significantly higher now than in the past and much more than SS would be. I am 59 and hope to buy a house soon. My wife and I have been renting since moving to Arkansas a year ago but so far haven't found the right place to buy. I feel like I should work at least until the mortgage is paid off so that might put me at full retirement age of 67 or so.

I don't think that for me it would make sense to retire and go on SS at 62 with a mortgage payment and make about 35% what I am making now.

If you live to be 90, it will probably be nice to complain about how you wish you had waited to take SS until you were 70.

Are you still coming out to kick my ass or what?

Unless you live to be 90, you will get about the same total dollars if you take it at 62 or 70 . Anything over75 or so is gravy. Govt. is betting you won't live past that 75 or so.

Actually they are hoping you die before you can collect a dime.

That indeed is the bottom line. You can take SS the moment you are eligible and collect a quarter million dollars or so guaranteed, or risk dying and collecting nothing at all.

A lot of good advice on this subject on here. I started collecting as soon as I turned 62. Didn't need it but figured it was best to start getting something back, being that I had been paying into SS since I was 16. Same for my wife who turned 62 in 2020. There's no guarantee that any of us will wake up tomorrow and It doesn't seem right that our government gets to keep what we all worked a lifetime for, but that's the way it works.

This thread pushed me into "opening" my SS account. I turn 62 the end (29th) of coming December. Rethinking, I believe I will begin collecting the beginning of 2024. Thanks to the OP (and others) for getting me off of my azz and to move on it.

I took mine at 62 last year. Who knows how long we will live. 😜
Nice little gun fund and fun check rolling in from the Gov every month is never a bad thing.

^^^Thus^^%

The earlier you take it, the less you get per month. But you get it earlier and can invest it for longer. So it depends on how long you're going to live and how much you can earn on an investment. In my case the answer was to take at at 66. YMMV.