Originally Posted by globalexpress

I wouldn't waste one moment Flyinhigh worrying about what you "coulda, shoulda" done in hindsight with SS. Many aspects of personal finance are, "Measure with a micrometer, mark with a crayon, cut with an axe." You don't know when you're going to die. You don't know what taxes are going to be in the future. You don't know what SS will pay in the future. All you can do is make educated guesses.

Jungle, maybe you mistyped but SS is more than just a "small addition" to people's retirement funds. When he was talking about $156 month, that's not what he was collecting. That was the change in monthly benefit because he didn't wait until FRA to start collecting. For a professional pilot for example, he/she may be collecting over $2,000/month in inflation adjusted dollars. Further, the spouse will be collecting (in most cases) 1/2 of that benefit at a minimum or their own accumulated benefit, whichever is better (with some exceptions). So for a married couple, you could easily be looking at over 3 grand/month, adjusted for inflation annually, and perhaps over 4 grand/month if both had decent jobs. For the vast majority of retired Americans, that's likely a good chunk of their retirement income.