I am within a few months of Full Retirement Age for SS. I have a state pension and earn a reasonable income as a part-time lawyer, so I don't "need" my SS benefit at this point.
If I take SS now and simply put it in the bank, I will accumulate $117K by age 70. If I wait until age 70, my monthly benefit will increase by $790. So the question is, $117K over the next four years vs. $790 more per month at age 70?
The additional $790 per month would eventually offset the $117K, but it would take 12 years. Dan Celia of Financial Issues, a fount of incorrect information about SS, always makes it sound like a no-brainer to wait until 70. However, I find the notion of an additional $117K in emergency savings to be somewhat attractive; if I need to draw it down to supplement my monthly income at some point, so be it.
The main attraction of waiting until 70 is that my wife, who has never worked, will have her SS benefit or survivor's benefit calculated off of mine - so if I wait, hers will be correspondingly larger.
Any thoughts on this?
Edit: The $117K is a before-taxes amount, so the banked portion wouldn't actually be that large. But the additional $790 would be before-taxes as well, so the question remains basically the same.
If I take SS now and simply put it in the bank, I will accumulate $117K by age 70. If I wait until age 70, my monthly benefit will increase by $790. So the question is, $117K over the next four years vs. $790 more per month at age 70?
The additional $790 per month would eventually offset the $117K, but it would take 12 years. Dan Celia of Financial Issues, a fount of incorrect information about SS, always makes it sound like a no-brainer to wait until 70. However, I find the notion of an additional $117K in emergency savings to be somewhat attractive; if I need to draw it down to supplement my monthly income at some point, so be it.
The main attraction of waiting until 70 is that my wife, who has never worked, will have her SS benefit or survivor's benefit calculated off of mine - so if I wait, hers will be correspondingly larger.
Any thoughts on this?
Edit: The $117K is a before-taxes amount, so the banked portion wouldn't actually be that large. But the additional $790 would be before-taxes as well, so the question remains basically the same.
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