Another article on delaying SS

[REWahoo]

Biding your time: Why it makes sense to delay your Social Security benefits

Not a very comprehensive piece since it only looks at the income side and ignores possible tax and surviving spouse benefits. One recommendation really caught my eye:

"The best plan is to keep working until age 70. That way, you can both delay taking benefits and avoid tapping into your savings,"

Great idea!

[bssc]

At the last MegaCorp retirement seminar, two of the people sitting next to me said that working until they die was their plan. According to this, they only need to work until they are 70

[Mysto]

In his example Mary makes more than Peter but Peter gets 8 years more retirement. I'll take that chance!

[Sam]

Quote:

Originally Posted by REWahoo "The best plan is to keep working until age 70. That way, you can both delay taking benefits and avoid tapping into your savings," Great idea!

I'm sure you're not being sarcastic. It's too bad that SS benefits stop increasing after age 70, otherwise...

[ats5g]

This may have been posted in another conversation, but has anyone run the numbers, through Firecalc for example to see if delaying SS to late 60's or 70's improves portfolio survivability?

Thanks,
Alec

[pfpelican]

please search on 'delaying s' ... then stand back

[FIRE'd@51]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sam It's too bad that SS benefits stop increasing after age 70, otherwise...

Yup, especially with all the immortals on this forum who would delay SS even later and end up never collecting - a painless way to fix SS

[REWahoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FIRE'd@51 Yup, especially with all the immortals on this forum who would delay SS even later and end up never collecting - a painless way to fix SS

Hey! Who are you calling immoral!!??

[Sam]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FIRE'd@51 Yup, especially with all the immortals on this forum who would delay SS even later and end up never collecting - a painless way to fix SS

Oh no! What if they change their mind now. You're ruining it for the "few of us".

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ats5g This may have been posted in another conversation, but has anyone run the numbers, through Firecalc for example to see if delaying SS to late 60's or 70's improves portfolio survivability?

Oh yes.

Any income stream injected into a firecalc ER plan helps survivability immensely by reducing withdrawals dollar for dollar. ESRBobs book explores this in great detail, although largely looking at using part time work and other income sources/expense offsets instead of SS income.

It depends on how "old" you are when you do the firecalc run.

If you're in your 40's or 50's, Firecalc indicates that taking SS early causes enough beneficial offset for you to take a higher withdrawal rate starting from your current age, "knowing" you have an income stream coming along that will help some of the runs from going below zero.

If you wait and do the run/decision right at 60-62, the appearance of the income streams is so close that the larger, slightly later one produces better numbers, especially for people with very small portfolios.

So I guess the answer to your question is "it depends".