I’m taking mine at 66.
Do you have to sign up for Medicare when you sign up for Social Security?
Can you take Social Security WITHOUT joining Medicare?
These kinds of articles never mention the possibility that SS payouts would be reduced in the coming years. With each passing year and SS drifts toward insolvency on paper, that possibility increases.
I took mine at 62.5, not knowing how long I will live.
How long will you live? If you plan on living a long time - wait.
If you are obese, you smoke and drink, have a poor family history, and are generally not in good health now? Take Social Security as soon as possible.
Kind of a moot argument to me and my generation since I doubt we’ll ever see a penny of it by the time we could quality. Of course that won’t stop the government from forcing us to pay in to this scam :S
I had a choice between getting a bit more from SS if I retired at 66 or 70, or retiring now at 56. No contest.
I’m going to start taking my Social Sec. later this year, a few months after I turn 62. Why? A. Who knows if this manner of individual payout will remain in force for the next few decades? I have heard of pension plans for huge industries such as General Motors. being ‘adjusted’ in spite of what was promised. Sometimes, the pension simply becomes too expensive to maintain. Retirees in Michigan were furious, but there was exactly nothing that could be done about it. The monies really were needed elsewhere. Apparently, it was also legal. I know Social Security is not the same thing as a pension, per se. But it’s similar enough.
B. Due to certain health conditions, I don’t know if I’ll even be around in ten years, let alone able to get out and job hunt. I guess none of us really knows. I don’t have a great amount saved up for retirement. Therefore, I have an attitude of making my present life as comfortable as I can, without going Hog-wild, economically speaking.
Seems like 64 is the spot for me. My full retirement is 66 1/2. I’ve seen too many people put it off, start collecting and die not long after that. Another thing I factor in is advice from my nearly 90 year old neighbor. He tells me that you may think you need a lot of money when you’re in your 60s, but by the time you hit late 70s, you just don’t need much money, you don’t do as much.
Luckily, we're still in relatively good health at 69 and 70. The smaller monthly amounts at age 62 hasn't affect our lifestyle at all.
Everybody's different but I don't understand the rationale for starting to draw it later, when you may not be around.
Between 60 and 70 is when many people start to have health issues and/or die. Most of my high school classmates who have died, have done so in this age decade.
What little extra money you would have received by waiting until later, pales in comparison to getting the money into your hands earlier when you can still spend it. Deciding to draw it at an older age may be too late.
Part of something is always better than all of nothing.
I took it at 62 because it worked out better for me to collect for an extra 4 years at a rate similar to the rate you get when you collect at 66. I turned 64 on July 1 and have been enjoying my SS for two years, and still have 2 more years I wouldn’t have had I waited. I wouldn’t really collect all that much more per month if I’d waited til I was 66. My husband is 71 and is a cancer survivor and not as healthy as me, I’m sorry to say, but should he pass away before me, I will drop mine and collect his, which at a lower rate than he collects now will still be more than what I would have collected at my 66 year old rate. So why not collect it for those extra four years?
I’m 30 years away from retirement. I’m expecting that I’ll have only my pension and savings.
Check your gene pool. If you relatives did not live beyond 66 or even 70 take it ASAP.
My wife is considerably younger than I am, so it looks like it makes the most sense for me to take at 70, so that she gets a full allotment after I eventually pass on.
62. There is no guarantee you will live to collect it all so start as soon as you can.
You were supposed to be dead at 57 years and your wife at 62. Then came Penicillin.
Course, if you way you may not make it.
Depends on if you would rather take the benefit and infest the money yourself or if you count on living long enough.
I’m taking mine at 62; four short years! I have healthcare through the VA, and I can still work from home and earn up to $17,040.00 and not lose a penny. (2018 figure; I’m figuring it’ll go up.) I’ll let my IRA $ ‘cook’ until I HAVE to touch it when I’m in my 70’s.
At this point I’m waiting to see if I’ll take mine, or the Ex-husband’s, whichever is more. He had some VERY high earning years when we were married...before he flushed his life down the cr@pper. :(
That’s the plan, anyway. Life LOVES to throw you a curve-ball once you have it all planned out. ;)
Thanks
I did not start collecting SS when I turned 62, as I don’t need it, even though I retired at 60. My wife and I both have significant pension income. But when one of us dies, the larger the SS payout, the better off that person will be. If I wait until 70 and die at 69, I’ll be too dead to care that I never got a dime. Had I started at 62 and live to be 90, I’d definitely care that I have a much smaller monthly check vs having waited until FRA or 70.