My second post to the string, sorry. The wife and I are taking it at 62 for all the reasons we stated earlier. Health issues, genes, (lack of) trust in our political leaders, etc. I understand why many of you are thinking about delaying this until 70, yes, I understand the 8+% return/year? Sure, you betcha, longevity insurance, federal government style.
However, another thought comes to mind. Call me a contrarian, a cynic, a sarcastic old bastard, I'd probably agree. In every instance during my life, pension "reform", benefit "improvements", etc. someone (a business, government, or whatever) has tried to steer me towards their "new" plan. "buy now, demand will be incredible". And my analysis at that time using various calculators would show the numbers looked better. That is, using the basic assumption that things will continue to go on "as usual". What else would you do, eh? Now, being the cynic that I am, in many cases we did not do it. Guess what, I've been right about 80% of the time. The latest was with a megaCorp pension. We got the full court press to change to a "enhanced" 401k matching a few years ago and give up the pension. A independant financial engine showed a remarkable 8% better return with the enhanced match. Hmm......notice any similarities? Now, 6 years later (after we've been acquired/takenover, hostile but not disclosed by the way); the enhanced match is cut to 40% for everyone and the guys who stayed with the pension accruing years of service, made out just fine. In fact, much better.
My point is, "burning up" your hard earned savings first, money that YOU have control of, and counting on the feds to provide you with longevity insurance is, in my opinion, pretty trusting. Btw, my dark side changed the word trusting to insane in the sentence above. Yes, a 8% return, sounds a little too good to be true to me. I think like megaCorp, the feds are just one little "made-up" rule change away to making this a very poor economic decision. If I make it to 80 years old, we'll see. However, at least we get a choice and I know what ours will be. Personally, we're going in the opposite direction. Good luck to you and yours.