Slide 18 of 18
Notes:
So the decision on Social Security is Why Wait?
One side is the thinking that “the sooner the better.” You might need the money for a good reason such as a roof over your head and food on the table. Or maybe you don’t want to work or can’t work anymore. Or you don’t expect to live until age 77 and want to get your share of the pot before you check out of the game.
It might be that your survivors have other benefits that will be coming in, so they will not be very concerned about a reduction in Social Security.
Finally, there’s the story that Social Security is going broke, so you need to “get it while the gettin’ is good.” This is not true. Unless they come up with a some medical breakthrough that will let all of us live more than a hundred years, nobody in here is going to lose Social Security benefits.
On the other side, the benefits of waiting are many. First, you’ll get more money by waiting until your full retirement age. Also, the annual COLAs will be higher so the gap between early retirement and full retirement gets wider as time goes by.
Your dependents get higher benefits as soon as they start drawing benefits, and your survivors will also get higher benefits. And if they wait until their full retirement age, their benefits will be even greater. So now you know the answers, are there any questions?
