It’s a multitude of things combined. Last year I read a great article on the “When to take SS” debate in the WSJ and emailed the author. A former SS Director now author and columnist. He told me you are really not going to make a major life changing mistake and it is unnecessary to stress over it. He said people over complicate it. Everyone has different situations but you really can’t hurt yourself. He said for every reason people use for waiting, you can also use the same reason for taking early.
I’m taking it in March to preserve my investments as my employment income will be over. My income in the past 15 years has always been between $140k - $235K so it’s a decent amount of SS. My SS and annuity will cover 100% of our annual expenses. So why wait I say. Enjoy it while I’m in my early years of retirement. Waiting will not change anything in my life except deplete savings. Our kids can’t inherit SS but they can our assets.
Come March I’m going to sleep, be done with stress, meetings, egotistic specialists, egotistic managers, play tennis every day, goof off with our grandkids, bob back and forth to Florida to play in a few tournaments, drink good wines, read and live the Word and have fun.