What Is the Best Age to Draw Social Security

What is the best age to start drawing Social Security? What age do you plan on starting to draw?

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Disclaimer: Please note that this video is made for entertainment purposes only and not to be taken as financial advice. Always make sure to do your own research.

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#socailsecurity #retirement #retirementplanning

[bernie]

I retired 7 years ago at age 62 and went on SS at that time. Why? Simple, because time is worth more to me than money. SS offers that carrot of more per month if you wait. Don't fall for it. I got a paper prior to going on SS that gave me monthly rates for age 62, 66 and 70, The longer you wait, the more per month you get. Don't be confused into thinking that more per month means more total. It doesn't. The only way to know for sure is to know when you are going to die. All three ages come even around 80 years of age which means you to live to 80 before waiting gains you anything. So I asked myself this question. Would I rather have more time retired while I was young enough to enjoy it, or more money when I was 80. Seemed like a no brainer to me. 7 years in and I have zero doubts that I made the right decision.

[peternorthrup]

The only reason I could retire at 55 was by moving out of NYS 25 years ago. The property taxes are out of control. We moved to NC. They are a fraction of NYS. At 62 I started SS. $2143.00 per month. Are nice home is paid for. I started working at 13. My wife receives a little less than I do. In January we will get another $350.00 Per month. COLA. we no longer touch are retirement accounts. We don't need the money. It's so nice every 4 weeks. They deposit the money and we start all over. We do just fine. My whole life I worked all the overtime I could. The plan was always to get out at 55. People make choices. I'm not rich man. You don't need all that money to retire. It's all about choices. Start early and get out early.

[J_Neighbor]

Erin - excellent video and spot on! Only a few Youtubers have
analyzed this correctly, and you are in that tiny club! I am 63.5 and started my SS this month. What stood out when I did my analysis is that we seem to think of average life expectancy as being a valid pout to use for analysis, when actually, when life expectancy is chartering, then chart is quite wide! For instance, my average life expectancy may be 79, but there may be a 20% chance of dying before 70. (Not factual…just used as an example, but I worked in a hospital long enough to know
I am probably not far off. I know in my family, no man has lived beyond one of my two brothers, who is 76, while my other brother died last year at 72. So, I had to make some adjustment in my life expectancy assumption calculations! It became obvious - at least for me - that taken SS early (if I am not working, which I’m not as of last month), was beneficial. Then, once I realized that we could almost live off my wife’s income and I could invest most of my monthly benefit, plus factoring in the 8.7% COLA, and I realized I would never be better off in SS terms than starting now. (And even if I live too long, imputing a rate of return into my invested SS increased my break even into my 90’s.) Thanks again for helping me realize I made the right decision

[martypoll]

I retired at 55. I took Social Security at 62. Social Security is about 20% of my income. The remainder of my income is my work pension. Both my work pension and SS are COLA’d. At the time I estimated my life expectancy to be 85-90 and had serious doubts about the health of the SS system. Since SS is such a small % of my total income I am not much concerned about the differences of collecting at 62 vs 66 vs 70. I am 12 years into retirement and sleeping very well.

[evmkirb]

Love the outtakes - you are fabulous!! ❤

[tonyflaminio]

Thanks Erin, my wife and I are planning to take SS at 67 and 68 respectively.
It sure is a complex decision.

[claytonspann]

Great video, I like that you covered the wide range of issues related to the questions of when to take SS, many others just do a simplistic (Break even on SS proceeds). Your point that while you need to consider the statistics it’s what works for you in the end is awesome advice. I’m 59 and while I’ve run the all the numbers I still haven’t decided. Thanks, Oh yeah… I love the outtakes at the end, they are a blast

[cliffluxion]

Thank you for the content! I am planning on taking SS at my FRA as this will maximize my wife's spousal benefit. She is almost a full year older than me and will take her SS at her FRA, as well.
I plan on having 1/3 pension annuity with a 50% survivor benefit, 1/3 combined Social Security, and 1/3 from retirement accounts, approximately.

[scottg]

This is the most in depth and helpful video you've done in a long time (and btw, you set the bar very high generally)....excellent work!

[stewartlafave]

Other considerations many people don’t consider. First is that the larger benefit goes to the spouse as a survivor benefit, and two lives have a longer life expectancy than one. So having the person with the larger benefit defer raises the benefit for either spouse after the death of the first. Second, the system of taxes on SS, RMDs and progressive tax rates all combine to increase the total tax a person pays if they increase their taxable retirement accounts by taking SS early. Deferring creates a tax planning window. Finally, a higher SS benefit can act as longevity insurance. My money can run out, but my SS benefit will be there forever. If my nest egg is small, I can use it over the defined time while I delay SS, then let that bigger benefit keep growing with inflation. Just some more things to think about.

[rab]

I did the same math you did and for me the lines crossed at age 82. I did consider opportunity cost as you did but I also considered expense ratio. When we retired we moved to a warmer state with no snow and ice and more importantly - no state income tax. We planned to travel, make some improvements to the house we bought, put some money into the grandkids 529 plans, etc. We figured by the time we were in our 80s most of those expenses would be gone and we wouldn't need as much to live on. We decided to start drawing at 62 and we are sure it was the right decision for us.

[SpartanOfFinance]

I have only recently been studying the implications of when to take SS since I am 10 years from early retirement and my wife is 12 years away. I feel fortunate that I will have a very secure pension and substantial personal investments. I will most likely retire at 62 and start benefits at 67 while my wife will begin when she is 62 (I will be 64 at that time). We plan on downsizing and our expenses will more than be covered by my pension assuming no large scale issues emerge between now and then. I have tried many retirement calculators and software (New Retirement and Personal Capital) and both seem to say it really doesn't matter when we collect unless you want to leave a bigger legacy but our standard of living can be supported in each scenario. Good video as always.

[genelevesque]

This is great information, thank you for sharing. You are an excellent communicator! ;-)

[toddaustin]

Erin knocked it out of the park on this one!

This is by far the best (ie, most easy to understand) video I've watched on what tends to be a dry, boring, yet extremely important subject.

As a Self-Employed Chiropractic Physician who loves the 3.5 day per week job which I've created for myself, I don't plan to draw on my Social Security until at least reaching my FRA of 67.

I'm in IL where all kinds of taxes (Property, Sales, Income, Gas, etc.) are completely out of control!

[steveweiss]

Great video Erin. Love the graphs that tell the real story. The lost oppertunity cost is in fact a big factor, or typically it is, other than this year. You might consider doing a separate video on when to take spousal benefits if married. For many couples it makes more sense to take spousal benefits early because they eventually end up getting half of the other spouses benefit which is often much larger. This was the case with my wife and I. This comes into play more often for couples when one stops working when they start a family but still has enough credits to get SS.

[kirklandphil]

Great video Erin, Wish you were my adviser about 20 years ago! I always planned to retire at 64.5. I have added to my and my wife's IRAs and Roth accounts every year. We paid off our house a long time ago and always planned to take our SS at 66.8 . Every month for the last 20 years I have added extra money to high-yield savings account at Charles Schwab. it makes next to nothing and looking back it was stupid but it was always my plan to use that money to get through the two-plus years before SS kicked in. The account has twice what I would ever need but the sale of my company and monthly income from that would have been more than I would have needed even if I waited till 70. Now I'm thinking it's just one more account my kids will inherit. I did a lot of things right but this was not one of them. Now I always used the account to buy things like cars, roofs and remodels. Take care, Erin.

[noway]

Erin, very good initial breakdown on Social Security. Not an easy topic with all the confusing pieces. I’ve seen some others comment about the impacts on when to take SS regarding a spouse. This would be a great topic next time you cover SS. You’ve done a good job communicating oftentimes difficult or complex topics for those newer to financial information. Keep up the good work!

[CalmerThanYouAre]

The conversation really needs to begin with whether or not you need Social Security as an insurance policy for retirement income, or if it will be a supplement to an already-established and resilient stream of retirement income. I would imagine most people watching this channel are in the latter group.

And in the case of the latter, I would rather have the money as soon as possible so that my family and I could enjoy it while I am young and healthy enough to travel and be active. While delaying could result in having more total dollars over the course of your life, if you’re already financially secure, how much does that really matter when many of those dollars would be claimed between ages 80 and 100 when you are too immobile to enjoy them?

This aspect is substantially overlooked in the SS discussion.

[johnmiech]

Another great video. Since there are so many pieces to the puzzle, it is tough to provide a singular answer. At the very least, you described all the pieces and the variety of ways they could fit together based on different personal circumstances. PS - Thanks for bringing back the out-takes. They were missing from your last video, and I thought they had gone by the wayside.

[stephanfiebich]

You made some good points there Erin, I’ll still draw at 62.