Originally Posted by
rickair7777
Statistically, no. The SS scales from 62 - 70 should be a financial wash to you (and .gov) based on life expectancy.
But of course that's *average* life expectancy, and they don't even have different scales based on gender.
So when you take SS should probably be informed by your health and family genetics. If you're healthy, work to stay that way, and your family tends to live well into their 90's (my wife's does) then maybe defer to age 70 for the best vegas odds. No guarantees of course, that's just playing the numbers that you know. Also need to consider your spouse's likely lifespan if the spouse depends on your benefits.
That all assumes that you don't NEED (or want) the SS sooner, and that your sole consideration is maximizing the $ benefit over time (for the benefit of your heirs?).
I plan to evaluate at age 62 and then each year thereafter. If I'm healthy enough to fly I can't imagine I'd take it before airline retirement (whenever that is).
You should have addressed this to Aletta, not me. He's the one that stated 67 is the ideal age to take SS. Mine was a rebuttal to his comment, as there are too many variables to declare a specific ideal retirement age for everyone.
You're simply muddying the waters by tossing in life expectancy, which was not his reason for stating 67. He simply stated 67 because it's full retirement age. I rebutted with 70 since that's maximum payout age when first taking retirement benefits. But you knew all of that.
And you should also know that no matter when you take SS benefits, the equal payout for each choice intersects somewhere in the low 80s.
Why did you choose to respond to my post but not Aletta's post?