Why Wouldn't I take Social Security Early for me and my Spouse

I think you're missing my point. If you spouse is already 70 you should have already started her taking her spousal benefit based off your FRA of 67 even though you are not 67 she could have started taking the maximum allowed amount of 50% of your FRA at her FRA which might even be 66 years and change. After she reached her FRA her benefit is the same as it does not increase. I did my calc. on my SS account which outlines that the max spousal benefit for me is at my FRA age of 67 and does not increase each year beyond that aside from colas.
The survivor benefit increases if you claim later than FRA (unlike the spousal benefit).
 
This seems like a good illustration. There have been two 10 year periods of negative real returns in the lifetimes of most people here.


Ten years is a very substantial chunk of the retirement of most people.
Are those two 10 year periods included in the Firecalc modeling?
 
I've been reading SS threads here for almost 20 years. My takeaway on taking it at 62 is that it's a bell shaped curve: you either desperately need the money or you don't need it at all. It's those in the middle who need to decide.

I'm in the latter camp and took it at 62.
Between DW and I it provided us with an extra ~$50k per year to do more fun things.
Tax free in our state.
Reduced our portfolio draw.
Break even at about 83.
....and the looming possibility of a haircut in 5 years.
No regrets but at the end of the day it pretty much all comes out as a wash.
I agree 100% with you Marko the government wants us all to wait till 70 to take it as 50% of us will never make it there to collect a penny lol
 
I agree 100% with you Marko the government wants us all to wait till 70 to take it as 50% of us will never make it there to collect a penny lol
But a couple is very likely to have one live into their 90s which is why one waiting to 70 often makes sense.

Life expectancy for a 62 year old male is still 20 years. A 62 year old has an 80% chance of making it to 70.
 
But a couple is very likely to have one live into their 90s which is why one waiting to 70 often makes sense.

Life expectancy for a 62 year old male is still 20 years.
I'm sorry I should of said for a single person like me. If married thats a different can of worms
 
I'm sorry I should of said for a single person like me. If married thats a different can of worms
Your choice affects just you. Threads which focus on singles seem to favor claiming early or at FRA.

If you have longevity in the parent, well...
 
But a couple is very likely to have one live into their 90s which is why one waiting to 70 often makes sense.

Life expectancy for a 62 year old male is still 20 years. A 62 year old has an 80% chance of making it to 70.
Of course. Unless, as noted you're on the other side of that bell curve and don't need the money at all, and you're only looking for some extra BTD money in your go go years.
 
Of course. Unless, as noted you're on the other side of that bell curve and don't need the money at all, and you're only looking for some extra BTD money in your go go years.
"I want my go go fun" is one of the available options.

Another option is waiting until the next year to see the additional reward for waiting.

There's a continuum of options to choose from.
 
Of course. Unless, as noted you're on the other side of that bell curve and don't need the money at all, and you're only looking for some extra BTD money in your go go years.
We didn’t spend less just because we didn’t start SS at 62. We had plenty to spend already.
 
Another option is waiting until the next year to see the additional reward for waiting.
Tick tock. There’s no guarantee on next year. As noted, a recent and unexpected health issue at age 72 has curtailed my go-go....temporarily I hope.

"Take the money and run" is a term that has served me well over my lifetime. As always, YMMV
 
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We didn’t spend less just because we didn’t start SS at 62. We had plenty to spend already.
Us too. The only difference was who pays for it: our IRA or the government.
 
I don't know... We can calculate and recalculate and see how we can get the most money, but it's really hard when we don't know when we are going to die.

I was going to wait until FRA to take my SS, but after some of the people I know died suddenly before their time, I decided to take it early (at 66), and I probably should have started taking it earlier as I only need a small amount of SS to keep my WR at 3.5% and my spouse cannot get any SS for himself or from me.

The only suggestion I have for the OP is that they up their end-of-life age to maybe 90 and recalculate if they haven't done so already.
 
Us too. The only difference was who pays for it: our IRA or the government.
For us our plan is that future SS will be charitable donations by matching the gross amount to QCDs which we weren’t eligible to start yet. We haven’t drawn on our IRAs for spending either. In the future these QCDs will reduce our taxable RMDs. We didn’t wish to draw SS earlier because we were doing other things to reduce future taxes.
 
Tick tock. There’s no guarantee on next year. As noted, a recent and unexpected health issue at age 72 has curtailed my go-go....temporarily I hope.

"Take the money and run" is a term that has served me well over my lifetime. As always, YMMV
You truncated my reply. As the original reply noted, there's a range of well thought-out options. I'm glad you found one that works for you.
 
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MODERATOR NOTE: To avoid confusion (and potential hard feelings) if you are going to quote and reply, when you change the original post in any way, please make it clear. Usually, omitted language is indicated by ellipses. Here is some further guidance. Quoting other members
Apologies. I was just trying to respond to one particular point of the post. Won't happen again.
 
No problem. Just a reminder for everyone, because I'm sure people are not clamoring to read my earlier posts.
 
FWIW, I decided to take my modest pension early which resulted in a reduced monthly payment. That’s another reason I chose to take SS at 70. I wanted to strengthen the pension/SS leg of my retirement stool going into my later years.
 
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