That is almost exactly my scenario of FRA vs. 70. I did the extrapolation, however . . . and I'd need to live to roughly age 86 for that delay to break-even in terms of total SS collected . . . and only long term benefits if I live to 86.5 years old. For me and my actuarial projection (given my other health issues), it doesn't really seems like a decent risk to delay past my FRA (66.5 or May 2024).This refers to not claiming SS at Full Retirement Age, but waiting until you're 70. For someone who gets the average SS payment, the difference in your award amount is about $900 per month.
Here's an example of an article with explanation.
I agree. At the break-even point, most people aren’t globe hopping, and don’t need the money for fun. Their lifestyle has calmed down.My rationale for claiming early...
I'd take a smaller amount to use while I'm still ambulatory,
than wait on a larger sum for which the break-even point
may be after I'm already in "the home."
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The govt is trying to get folks to delay drawing. The great baby boom generation has been retiring at the rate of 10,000 per day for the past 10 + years. There are not enough tax payers to replace us and maintain benefits as they currently exist. Not even with the boomlet that occurred during the 80s. If the govt doesn’t figure out something soon, the program may be insolvent by 2035. The best they can do right now is convince people to delay drawing until later. There’s already talk of raising the retirement age to 70.What is this all about, it looks like a scam. See it advertised everywhere on the web. Can someone explain just what is this about.
If the govt doesn’t figure out something soon, the program may be insolvent by 2035. The best they can do right now is convince people to delay drawing until later.
That is not what I saw in my benefit calculator on the "my Social Security" site. There was a pronounced jump in benefits close to my birthday.And there is no big "step" in your award amount at FRA or any other time -- your "delayed retirement credit" goes up incrementally every month you wait from 62 to 70, not 8% all at once annually. And the reduction for early retirement is also per-month.
I think this is standard. When someone doesn't start at 62 but wants to start before FRA, sometimes it is because Something Has Changed, like health, employment, death of spouse, natural disaster, etc. Most folks don't know they can get the last six months payments as a lump sum then, by effectively doing a retroactive application which would indeed reduce the monthly award.My DW delayed taking SS by a few years past. After submitting her application, a SS minion called to offer her a lump-sum which would effectively back-date her start-date. It would mean lower payments based on the earlier start-date.
She was tempted, but ultimately decided not tol take the bait.
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