On the Suze Orman show tonight there was question about working 3 more years to increase pension by $300 a month.
Any thoughts?
I agree with the comments made by the other posters.
Additionally, you typically accrue/earn more pension money for EVERY year you work. With this in mind, you can always increase your pension the longer you work. Following this logic, you could keep working until you die (thus having accrued the largest pension benefit).
The real issue is, you need to figure out how much money you need to live on (= A) Then do another calculation to figure out where the 'sweet spot' is in your pension payout (= B).
You have reached Financial Independence when you have accrued A (which can be a combination of savings, SS, and pension).
If A is less than B, then you are 'sitting pretty' and can decide how much additional time (life energy) it will take to get to B. Once you know this, you can decide if it is worth it to you to work that extra time.
(As a way of explanation, crunch the numbers for your pension payout leaving at ages 48 thru 65 or 70. Then set up a spreadsheet that calculates what the total pension payout would be if you die at whatever you are using as your 'expiration date'.
I set up a spreadsheet with age of death at 95, and calculated how much TOTAL pension I would receve retiring at 55, 56, 57,.... 70. Then I plotted these values.
Many pension benefits start with an upward slope that then levels off at a certain point.
In my case the sweet spot is at age 58, with a point at age 61 & 62 when the added increment to my pension actually goes negative.
I have reached FI, now I need to decide if it is worth it to me to work until age 58 to get hit the 'sweet spot' of my pension payout.)
EngrGal