When Should You Take Social Security?

[bjl584]

When Can You Start Collecting Social Security?

[kork13]

Notable distinction between the headline & your question -- when CAN you, vs. when SHOULD you?

As in many aspects of life ... "It Depends".

I'd say that answering the "should" question depends on:
- Your health. If you've been injured/ill/disabled/enfeebled & unable to work, perhaps you need the supplemental income ASAP at 62 to keep your finances afloat, even if it's a smaller amount. Alternatively, if you're in poor health (ex: you've already had 2 heart attacks, lost a limb to poorly controlled diabetes, or suffering from cancer) and don't expect to last much longer, it may be best to start SS payments ASAP, to collect as much as you can before your ultimate death (either covering your expenses, or potentially leaving your heirs more of an inheritance).
- Your means. If you're relatively poor with insufficient retirement savings to really meet your needs, perhaps you accept the lower amount to take it earlier (around 62-66) to make up the difference (though the longer you can wait, the better). If you're relatively wealthy (or even just have sufficient for your needs), you may want to delay until 70 to just let the payment amount max out & let it build your flexibility.
- Your expectations. As stated earlier ... if you have reason to expect that you will not live for very long, it may be best to claim SS early to get whatever benefit you can before your death. Conversely, if your family is reliably long-lived & you're in good health, maybe you should delay until 70 to start SS, in order to ensure that you'll get the greatest benefit from SS while you hang around into your 90s+.
- Your beliefs. There are factions out there who believe that SS is effectively a massive government-sponsored ponzi scheme ... or at least, who believe that SS will go belly-up soon & ultimately fail. If you fall into one of these camps, it's probably to your advantage to start taking SS payments ASAP. If your beliefs prove true, then you can have at least extracted as much benefit from the enterprise as you could.

There are many calculators out there to help in making this decision, and can figure out your break-even point between claiming early vs. at FRA vs. claiming late. My rough guess is that if you expect to live beyond ~77-80 y/o, it's probably most beneficial to delay taking SS as long as possible.

[Fishindude77]

It really all depends upon your personal situation and needs.
I'm 65-1/2 and have been out of the workforce for 8+ years. Have been living off of our savings, a monthly draw from the IRA and a few other sources of income we have from investments.
My intention is to take SS at 66 & 10 months to get the full retirement amount. It's about $1000 more per month than I would have gotten taking it at 62-1/2.

The majority of our friends and acquaintances are taking it as soon as available, 62-1/2.

[disneysteve]

My plan if I remain healthy is to take SS at 70. We may have DW take it sooner, like 65-66, but definitely not before that as it would impact insurance premiums by boosting our AGI.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

It depends. If you knew you were going to die at 70 when would you take it?

[disneysteve]

It depends. If you knew you were going to die at 70 when would you take it?

If I knew I would die at 70, I'd have to research how survivor benefits work. If me delaying my SS would increase DD's survivor benefit, I'd hold off. If it didn't matter, I'd take it as soon as possible.

My cousin who died a few years ago started collecting as soon as he received his terminal diagnosis. He was probably 63. He wasn't planning to take it until 70 but being single with no dependents survivor benefits weren't a factor so he took what he could get.