3 things to consider before taking Social Security, according to a financial planner

[MULTIZ321]

3 things to consider before taking Social Security, according to a financial planner.

3 things to consider before taking Social Security, according to a financial planner

The math of retirement income is only part of the story of Social Security. It is a very personal decision that can have subjective factors, too.

www.businessinsider.com

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Richard

 

[Talent312]

Kind'a vague, but at least he's not beating the "only at 70" drum. He's right about not using up savings just to pay for the delay. Taking SS early allowed me to retire early in the style to which I was accustomed, and reserve savings for only special projects.

 

[5finny]

I often see advice columns recommending taking social security early and then adding up what you would receive by taking early payments and then how long you would have to actually live if you delayed taking payments before you would actually wind up with at least the same total amount of money -- in general it tends to be pretty old. Sometimes they add some calculations on the time value of money usually not.
Two facts are seldom mentioned and seem important to me.
The first adds strength to the argument that you should claim early. In figuring the break even point the relevant date should be when you go into a nursing home and go on Medicaid not your date of death since once you go on Medicaid almost 100% of your social security will go to the nursing home no matter the amount. (This does not apply if you are lucky enough not to go on Medicaid or not to go into a nursing home.)
The second point adds strength to the argument that you should delay claiming benefits. Delaying payments is a form of longevity insurance. You do not know when you will pass but by delaying your payments you insure higher payments should you exhaust other assets and have a long life. If you die early you do not benefit from the insurance but that does not mean that the insurance did not have value.--think of not using your home insurance because you did not have a fire.
Neither point is sufficient to change the fact that there is no single right decision for every one

 

[PamMo]

We're a few years from FRA, and were curious about this, so I ran our numbers using the SSA calculator - https://www.ssa.gov/myaccount/retire-calc.html

If we start payments today, we'll be 80 years old at the break even point vs starting at FRA. We'd be 86 at the break even point vs starting benefits at 70. So, I guess I just need to figure out how long we'll live and how will SS rules/payments be tweaked in the future?