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all that really matters though is you are alive , generating bills and still need to meet your obligations whether in fine health or not .
personally we are delaying because by delaying mathematically you can spend more early on because you will refill later with a 70% bigger check . if you die , well dead is dead .
My brother hated his job but followed the financial experts who said he should wait until he was 67 before he retired and collect social security. The experts said he needed at least a million in investment and retirement accounts or he could not retire. He was just short of that figure so he decided to wait and collect more money.
The years between his 62nd and 67th birthday were tough. He hated working and his employer was always trying to get him to quit. It was tough on his mind body and spirit. Finally he reached age 67 and formally retired. A few months later he died suddenly of a massive heart attack.
If only he did not follow those silly experts, maybe he would still be alive today or at least his last five years would have been better!
So sad about your brother. That happened to my Uncle as well.
However, an Aunt who worked hard and at 62 was diagnosed with colon cancer. She immediately retired and had the operation, lost a few pounds, ate healthfully and lived until she was 99! She laughed all her retirement life that she put one over on the Federal Government by living 37 years on Social Security!!
So, the bottom line is enjoy life and retire as soon as you can. Perhaps your brother should have retired at 62 and relaxed more?
just the fact that everyone knows some case where someone died early on is good . because if you had to name and remember all the folks who went on in retirement and lived quite long you couldn't do it , you would be overwhelmed ..
the dying new retiree we remember is because it is so rare and stands out .
Yeah minimal is right…I think it's something like 25K for a single person.
I know I can't live off of that even with an early SS benefit and early pension added. (Or wouldn't want to, let's put it that way)
But I guess it will work for some people so it's good to know. For example, if a person has earth issues and has to cut back to part-time work…..
Well, if it's 15,000 or 25,000 it will allow me to work part time between the age of 62-65 so I can continue to get medical benefits until medicare takes effect.
Plus that doesn't seem like a lot of money to some people, but for me, it will allow me to make minor home improvements, pay for some groceries and help with utilities.
Also, for myself, my goal is to be debt free at age 62 which will mean not having a house payment or any credit card or loan payments at that time. My taxes and insurance on the house won't be more than about $120 per month. At age 65, it will be even less than that.
So, when I combine my SS at age 62 with working just a few hours a week, not having a house payment or others debts, I'm looking pretty good. That's all I need to be happy. Then at age 65, I'll start withdrawing a little bit each month from a relatively small amount I have in a 401k and stop working all together.
It may not be a perfect plan with lots of extra money, but it works for me.
The point would be that if you have enough saved to use your savings, instead of SS until tour 65, then start SS, run the amounts in SSAnalyze and see what your benefits would be. You may find out, like most do, that living on JUST your higher SS benefit which is entirely tax free, yields more money in your pocket to spend, meaning you will not have to touch what's left of your savings at all, allowing it to grow back to and surpass what it was. If you can't properly use or are unsure of how the financial calculators work, find someone that can. You just have to have enough saved to live on until you collect, and to still have an amount left over that can grow back when you collect. In fact, if all you have is SS to live on, you may find that all your withdrawals are non taxed because you are below the threshold, allowing you to roll over everything to a Roth, for when you do start collecting, and it has recovered to a nice size, allowing you to withdraw any amount for a large purchase, and not worry at all,mever about taxes.
You just have to get over the nonsense about "What if I die before I collect?" It won't matter, you will be dead. Your heirs get less. Boohoo for them. If you have a spouse, they end up with a higher SS income, for their life.
The ONLY negative is that during the time period while your savings is recovering, you DO have less for an emergency.
In my eyes, I've been saving all my life to allow me to live off that savings so I can retire early, while delaying my SS to guarantee me a higher stress free income for me or my widowed wife the rest of our lives. It's all about the higher guaranteed stress free income if you live, not about making sure you "get whats owed you from the gubmint" & having more left behind if you die. But that seems to be the way many Americans are wired.
The point would be that if you have enough saved to use your savings, instead of SS until tour 65, then start SS, run the amounts in SSAnalyze and see what your benefits would be. You may find out, like most do, that living on JUST your higher SS benefit which is entirely tax free, yields more money in your pocket to spend, meaning you will not have to touch what's left of your savings at all, allowing it to grow back to and surpass what it was. If you can't properly use or are unsure of how the financial calculators work, find someone that can. You just have to have enough saved to live on until you collect, and to still have an amount left over that can grow back when you collect. In fact, if all you have is SS to live on, you may find that all your withdrawals are non taxed because you are below the threshold, allowing you to roll over everything to a Roth, for when you do start collecting, and it has recovered to a nice size, allowing you to withdraw any amount for a large purchase, and not worry at all,mever about taxes.
You just have to get over the nonsense about "What if I die before I collect?" It won't matter, you will be dead. Your heirs get less. Boohoo for them. If you have a spouse, they end up with a higher SS income, for their life.
The ONLY negative is that during the time period while your savings is recovering, you DO have less for an emergency.
In my eyes, I've been saving all my life to allow me to live off that savings so I can retire early, while delaying my SS to guarantee me a higher stress free income for me or my widowed wife the rest of our lives. It's all about the higher guaranteed stress free income if you live, not about making sure you "get whats owed you from the gubmint" & having more left behind if you die. But that seems to be the way many Americans are wired.
Great post with some great advice. Yes, I would definitely use savings if that were possible but I don't know at this point. I will depend on how much equity I have in my house, when I sell it at age 62. The equity in my current home will allow me to buy another less expensive house in another state that I've been wanting to move to for a long time and have hopefully a nice chunk of $ left after that. It will all depend on the housing market at the time.
Of course, and thats why Plan A, Plan B, Plan C etc are required. There is only positives to having multiple plans depending on what reality deals to you at the time it happens. Forcing a plan to fit when reality doesn't make that plan viable is just plain foolish, but many people do just that because "that's the plan". Flexibility and adaptability are required to survive in both life and retirement. More so in retirement because often the decision you make is final. No do overs!
If you literally have too little or no money to live off and debt, when 62 rolle around, then of course you can't delay for a higher benefit. That's life. Either come to peace with living off that amount for life, with less room for error, or keep working if possible. Its all a personal choice.
That sucks eggs! Given the uncertainty of life -- and now of economics and government -- I might have to revisit my lifelong resolve to wait to take mine.
That sucks eggs! Given the uncertainty of life -- and now of economics and government -- I might have to revisit my lifelong resolve to wait to take mine.
The actuarial table tells me that if you read an anonymous post on an internet forum about someone's relative who died 11 years lower than mean life expectancy, that YOU WILL DIE ... ON THE JOB ... trying to make it to 67-1/2 years of age! YOU ... YES ... YOU!!!!!
/ sarc
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