When will / did you claim Social Security benefits?

Non-investing personal finance issues including insurance, credit, real estate, taxes, employment and legal issues such as trusts and wills.

When will / did you claim Social Security benefits?

Poll ended at Sun Apr 05, 2015 8:04 pm

Whenever I retire(d), my age when I claim(ed) does not matter to me
6
2%
Age 62, as early as I can
48
16%
After 62, but before FRA
20
7%
Age 65/66, at full retirement age (FRA)
41
13%
After FRA, but before age 70
22
7%
Age 70, when increased benefits no longer accrue
157
51%
After age 70
3
1%
Never (please say why)
1
0%
Other (please explain)
8
3%
 
Total votes: 306

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Leeraar
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When will / did you claim Social Security benefits?

Post by Leeraar »

Inspired by Lawrence Kotlikoff's observations on Social Security claiming strategies,

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=159374

I thought this would be an interesting poll. If nothing, it may prove that Bogleheads are very different from the general population.

The question is: When will (did) you claim your Social Security benefit?

This is not a strategy question. If you are single, with only one entitlement, it's pretty clear.

If you are married or have more than one entitlement, the question is, at what age did the person with the largest benefit make a claim and then receive benefits? The age at which you may file and suspend is not the answer asked in the poll. The age at which the person with the largest benefit actually takes the benefit is what I am looking for

L.
Last edited by Leeraar on Thu Mar 05, 2015 7:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: When will / did you claim Social Security benefits?

Post by Wildebeest »

70 years

I would also be interested as to how many people did the file and suspend for the purpose of spousals benefits and what difference it made in benefits.
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Re: When will / did you claim Social Security benefits?

Post by BTDT »

Age 68 and waiting :oops:
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Re: When will / did you claim Social Security benefits?

Post by Ron »

I/wife attained SS FRA last year. I did the file/suspend in January; she filed a restricted application in her birth month - May, and has been collecting 50% of my FRA benefit since that time (including the 1.7% increase for this year).

We both intend to file for our own benefits at age 70. If I die before reaching that age (less than 3 years) she will file for survivor benefits immediately since my current accrued benefit is higher than what she will get at age 70 on her own record.

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Re: When will / did you claim Social Security benefits?

Post by Toons »

62,,Nary a moment too soon :happy
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Re: When will / did you claim Social Security benefits?

Post by montanagirl »

70 for my benefit. 66 for spousal, starting this month. :happy
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Re: When will / did you claim Social Security benefits?

Post by FreeAtLast »

Still mulling this one over (at age 59.37).....If I were forced to make a decision right now, it would be my FRA (66 years, 2 months).
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Re: When will / did you claim Social Security benefits?

Post by JDCarpenter »

"Other." DW is the higher earner, although I am past the second bend point. Assuming that I die at 85 (and that we each work enough in 2017 to meet the wage cap), the plan I ran through Bedrock Financial's planner indicates that I should claim at age 68, allowing DW to claim spousal at age 67 and saving hers for age 70. (Her expected death date is 100+ for planning purposes).

This assumes that we get Social, which I am still not planning on given the possibility of means testing (presently 56 & 55). In any event, we expect to give all those payments to our kids and/or education funding for theoretical grandkids soon after receipt.

Of course, I will be running additional projections on an annual basis once we retire....

EDIT: Upon reading Leeraar's clarification of the intent of the question, I changed to "70," as that is the age at which our person with the biggest PIA will start drawing her own account.
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Re: When will / did you claim Social Security benefits?

Post by tacster »

The day I turn 62.
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Re: When will / did you claim Social Security benefits?

Post by Professor Emeritus »

The question muddles spousal and primary benefits. My wife is disabled and younger than me so I get spousal at 66 and mine at 70
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Re: When will / did you claim Social Security benefits?

Post by jeff1949 »

I will apply for spousal only benefits a few months from now when I turn FRA (66) and my regular SS when I turn 70.
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Re: When will / did you claim Social Security benefits?

Post by GerryL »

I was planning to start SS in January the year after I turn 69 (in September), but the way my cash is holding up, I may just wait until 70. That may give me some leeway to do a 4th year of Roth conversions.
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Re: When will / did you claim Social Security benefits?

Post by Mapache »

I turned 62 in January 2015. I get my first check next week. :D
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Re: When will / did you claim Social Security benefits?

Post by Leeraar »

Professor Emeritus wrote:The question muddles spousal and primary benefits. My wife is disabled and younger than me so I get spousal at 66 and mine at 70
Professor,

I was unable to formulate a crisp, understandable poll that asks about spousal benefits, or other strategies. So, the question her for a couple is: Who has the larger benefit? Then, when did the person with the larger benefit start receiving it?

L.
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Re: When will / did you claim Social Security benefits?

Post by Leeraar »

This is quite interesting!

So far, of 63 votes, 2/3 (65%) of respondents are taking their benefit at age 70. According to Lawrence Kotlikoff on the radio on Wednesday, only 2% of Americans delay their benefit to age 70.

There is a significant minority who are taking their benefit as soon as they can, at age 62.

L.
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Re: When will / did you claim Social Security benefits?

Post by Cernel »

Didn't vote yet since I'm not sure if our situation falls in the "Other" or "at 70" category. Maybe the OP can help clarify.

Our strategy: (Wife is 8 months older than husband and her SS benefit is less than 50% of husband's)
Wife starts her SS benefit at FRA which is 66. 8 months later when husband turns 66 (his FRA) and he files a Restricted Application and starts to draw a benefit of 50% of wife's SS Benefit. Then when husband turns 70 he files for his own benefit and wife files for Spousal Benefit.
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Re: When will / did you claim Social Security benefits?

Post by joebh »

Ron wrote:I/wife attained SS FRA last year. I did the file/suspend in January; she filed a restricted application in her birth month - May, and has been collecting 50% of my FRA benefit since that time (including the 1.7% increase for this year).

We both intend to file for our own benefits at age 70. If I die before reaching that age (less than 3 years) she will file for survivor benefits immediately since my current accrued benefit is higher than what she will get at age 70 on her own record.
This is our plan as well.
We have sufficient non-ssa funds to carry us through until then.

This should both maximize our benefits and maximize survivor benefits as well.
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Re: When will / did you claim Social Security benefits?

Post by bengal22 »

Current Plan(wife 2 years younger)

wife takes SS at 62 - her benefit
I take SS at FRA at 66 - my benefit
Wife converts to spousal at same time,

However, depending upon things this could change when I turn 66. Maybe I file and suspend and she still takes spousal. But with RMD starting at 70 1/2 maybe FRA is still the best plan.
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Re: When will / did you claim Social Security benefits?

Post by JPH »

I started receiving benefits on my spouse's account at FRA. I will claim my own benefits at age 70.
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Re: When will / did you claim Social Security benefits?

Post by nisiprius »

This is just a factual statement of what I did. Not recommended. According to every expert it was a dumb, sub-optimal move. It was done for a combination of both good and bad reasons. My employer's business collapsed in 2008 and during five months of unemployment I had not succeeded in getting a single interview. It wasn't clear if any extension past six months was likely. It just seemed convenient to file and arrange for my first Social Security payment to arrive at the end of six months of unemployment, so I did. That set Murphy's Law working in my favor and I landed an excellent position that blew through the earned income limit. For reasons, or for no reason, I decided to let things ride, took no action, and the natural result was that I received zero benefits until full retirement age, then the benefit was adjusted upward at full retirement age, then the company I was working at ran out of money, so it seemed like a good time to retire.

If that isn't clear, I "filed" early, but in terms of actual benefit dollars received it was virtually identical to filing at full retirement age.

The super-bad reason, yet one which both my wife and I were in sync on--it was bad but we were going to do it anyway--was that we know too darn many people who died before reaching age 70 and the possibility of dying before drawing any benefits was just psychologically unacceptable to us.

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Just stumbling through life and doing not-optimal-not-crazy things. If someone wants to run ESPLanner and tell me that we could be receiving $X more in benefits and would be Y% happier as a result, go right ahead.
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Re: When will / did you claim Social Security benefits?

Post by Ron »

Leeraar wrote:<snip...> According to Lawrence Kotlikoff on the radio on Wednesday, only 2% of Americans delay their benefit to age 70.

There is a significant minority who are taking their benefit as soon as they can, at age 62.ar

L.
Well, since my wife/me are not (nor ever will be) 1%'ers, we'll be satisfied with being 2%'ers :mrgreen: ...

As far as those taking it at age 62? I'm sure there are a lot of reasons why, due to personal situations. In our case, delaying SS also gives us the opportunity to "spend down" substantial tax deferred funds over an 11-year period (59-70) which would drive us beyond our current 25% tax bracket in retirement and result in Medicare surcharges. BTW, we also purchased a life SPIA (joint/survivor at 100% for a guaranteed payout of 28 years) in an effort to reduce the future amount of RMD's we'll be facing in a few years, since SPIA's can be used to reduce your tax deferred fund basis not affected by RMD's.

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Re: When will / did you claim Social Security benefits?

Post by DFrank »

I am married, and will have the larger benefit. My wife is 9 years younger than I am.

I plan to wait until I am 70 to draw my benefit. We are less firm on our plan for when my wife will start her benefit. The decision will be made based on what's happened to our portfolio, and my health status. If the markets treat us kindly in the early years of our retirement, and my health continues to look good, we'll probably wait to draw her benefit. If either or both of those factors go negative they will influence us to take her's earlier.
Last edited by DFrank on Fri Mar 06, 2015 9:56 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: When will / did you claim Social Security benefits?

Post by vested1 »

Thanks to this forum, the current plan based on me being exactly 1 year older than my wife and our PIA's being fairly equivalent with mine being a bit higher:

I am currently delaying.
She retires this year at 62 on her birthday while I work to an undetermined date, likely years end (63.5).
She files at 65 for her own benefit and I file a restricted application, receiving half of her PIA.
I file for my own benefit at 70.
If some financial catastrophe should happen our filing strategy would likely be accelerated.

If our investments do better than anticipated:
She delays until 66 when I file and suspend while she files a restricted application.
We both file for our own benefit at age 70.
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Re: When will / did you claim Social Security benefits?

Post by Leeraar »

Cernel wrote:Didn't vote yet since I'm not sure if our situation falls in the "Other" or "at 70" category. Maybe the OP can help clarify.

Our strategy: (Wife is 8 months older than husband and her SS benefit is less than 50% of husband's)
Wife starts her SS benefit at FRA which is 66. 8 months later when husband turns 66 (his FRA) and he files a Restricted Application and starts to draw a benefit of 50% of wife's SS Benefit. Then when husband turns 70 he files for his own benefit and wife files for Spousal Benefit.
That will be 70. The question is, at what age do you take the maximum benefit?

By the way, the poll will let you change your response.

L.
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Re: When will / did you claim Social Security benefits?

Post by The Wizard »

My plan is to hold out five more years till age 70 to take my own SS benefit.
I'll claim my Divorced Spouse benefit next year at FRA...
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Re: When will / did you claim Social Security benefits?

Post by rixer »

I'm married and have the larger benefit. The wife claimed early SS at 63 and I filed restricted application at 66 and claimed spousal on hers. I will wait until age 70 to claim unless for any reason it becomes a hardship. I'm not going to sacrifice any living standards or forgo any travel to do this but so far it's worked well.
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Re: When will / did you claim Social Security benefits?

Post by JW-Retired »

Lower earner wife filed at FRA and I took the modest spousal benefit a little later when I reach FRA too. At 70 I claimed my own benefit and she claimed spousal, which boosted our total SS income by about 3X. Admittedly, this was totally painless since I worked until age 69.

Must say the delay worked out even better than we anticipated. We hadn't really appreciated how much more favorably SS income gets taxed. CA doesn't tax it and IRS only taxes 85%. In our case, that's like a couple of brackets lower tax on our SS in comparison to RMDs.

Amazing that so many Bogleheads seem to understand the benefits of delay, but only 2% of the rest of the population. Thank you sscritic and others! :beer
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Re: When will / did you claim Social Security benefits?

Post by mhalley »

Who knew that taking social security would be such a difficult decision? Even the so-called "experts" sometime do not know about different aspects. I was listening to Dave Ramsey the other day, and someone called in with a SS question, and Dave had never heard of "file and suspend". I was flabbergasted.
Dave then went on to say the best way to take social security was asap (ie age 62) so you could invest the money. Unless of course you NEEDED social security to live on, in that case you should delay as long as possible. I don't know what he thought you were going to live on while you wait. I guess you live with your children in that case. :confused
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Re: When will / did you claim Social Security benefits?

Post by Ron »

mhalley wrote:<snip...> Dave then went on to say the best way to take social security was asap (ie age 62) so you could invest the money....
Well, that might be a good option, but then again - not:

https://www.fidelity.com/insights/retir ... y-benefits

FWIW,

- Ron
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Re: When will / did you claim Social Security benefits?

Post by RWeThereYet »

Professor Emeritus wrote:The question muddles spousal and primary benefits. My wife is disabled and younger than me so I get spousal at 66 and mine at 70
PE/Someone, would you please expand on this statement.......my wife is younger than me (58) and drawing SSDI. Does the above mean that I can file and suspend any time after I am eligible for SS (am 65 now), and draw 50% of her SSDI? Or am I misunderstanding your statement?
Thanks.
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Re: When will / did you claim Social Security benefits?

Post by ObliviousInvestor »

RWeThereYet wrote:
Professor Emeritus wrote:The question muddles spousal and primary benefits. My wife is disabled and younger than me so I get spousal at 66 and mine at 70
PE/Someone, would you please expand on this statement.......my wife is younger than me (58) and drawing SSDI. Does the above mean that I can file and suspend any time after I am eligible for SS (am 65 now), and draw 50% of her SSDI? Or am I misunderstanding your statement?
Thanks.
What you are talking about -- filing for just spousal benefits and allowing your own retirement benefit to continue growing -- is known as a "restricted application" (which is different from filing and suspending).

You must have reached your full retirement age in order to file a restricted application. (If you file for spousal benefits prior to your FRA, you'll automatically be deemed to have filed for your own retirement benefit as well.)
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Re: When will / did you claim Social Security benefits?

Post by RWeThereYet »

ObliviousInvestor wrote:
RWeThereYet wrote:
Professor Emeritus wrote:The question muddles spousal and primary benefits. My wife is disabled and younger than me so I get spousal at 66 and mine at 70
PE/Someone, would you please expand on this statement.......my wife is younger than me (58) and drawing SSDI. Does the above mean that I can file and suspend any time after I am eligible for SS (am 65 now), and draw 50% of her SSDI? Or am I misunderstanding your statement?
Thanks.
What you are talking about -- filing for just spousal benefits and allowing your own retirement benefit to continue growing -- is known as a "restricted application" (which is different from filing and suspending).

You must have reached your full retirement age in order to file a restricted application. (If you file for spousal benefits prior to your FRA, you'll automatically be deemed to have filed for your own retirement benefit as well.)
Perhaps I was not clear. My question is specifically whether or not I can claim any part of my wife's SSDI. I had not heard that this was a possibility.
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Re: When will / did you claim Social Security benefits?

Post by ObliviousInvestor »

RWeThereYet wrote:
ObliviousInvestor wrote:
RWeThereYet wrote:
Professor Emeritus wrote:The question muddles spousal and primary benefits. My wife is disabled and younger than me so I get spousal at 66 and mine at 70
PE/Someone, would you please expand on this statement.......my wife is younger than me (58) and drawing SSDI. Does the above mean that I can file and suspend any time after I am eligible for SS (am 65 now), and draw 50% of her SSDI? Or am I misunderstanding your statement?
Thanks.
What you are talking about -- filing for just spousal benefits and allowing your own retirement benefit to continue growing -- is known as a "restricted application" (which is different from filing and suspending).

You must have reached your full retirement age in order to file a restricted application. (If you file for spousal benefits prior to your FRA, you'll automatically be deemed to have filed for your own retirement benefit as well.)
Perhaps I was not clear. My question is specifically whether or not I can claim any part of my wife's SSDI. I had not heard that this was a possibility.
Yes. See here:
http://www.ssa.gov/OP_Home/cfr20/404/404-0330.htm
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Re: When will / did you claim Social Security benefits?

Post by kolea »

The difficulty I have with retirement planning, and SS plays a role here, is that our spending is projected to be much higher in the first 10 years than in the remaining 20 years. But for safety reasons, I want our investment management to be more conservative in those early years. So there is a tension here.

My approach is to treat this as a cash-flow problem rather than a total-return optimization. In other words, take SS early, to fill the need for more income the first 10 years. This diminishes the total return from SS, but since our income needs are met, does that really matter?

Anyway, my plan is to take it sometime between 66 and 70. I am waiting to see how things evolve. We just retired 2 years ago. So far we don't need it.
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Re: When will / did you claim Social Security benefits?

Post by MP1233 »

We are <12 months from retirement and in our late 50s. No guarantees, but the current plan is to consider our SS as longevity insurance and wait until 70. I think Larry Swedroe and others made a convincing argument to wait unless you absolutely need the money to cover basic expenses.
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Re: When will / did you claim Social Security benefits?

Post by Tamales »

Leeraar wrote: This is not a strategy question. If you are single, with only one entitlement, it's pretty clear.
L.
Do tell! From the casual reading I've done on when to take SS, I've never seen anyone weed out single people as a "no-brainer" case.

It would seem to me that single people as a group have the same health, income, expenses, job security, and in some cases dependents concerns that married people have.
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Re: When will / did you claim Social Security benefits?

Post by Leeraar »

Tamales wrote:
Leeraar wrote: This is not a strategy question. If you are single, with only one entitlement, it's pretty clear.
L.
Do tell! From the casual reading I've done on when to take SS, I've never seen anyone weed out single people as a "no-brainer" case.

It would seem to me that single people as a group have the same health, income, expenses, job security, and in some cases dependents concerns that married people have.
If you have a single entitlement, the age at which you choose to take it has only one answer.

How or why you decided when to take it is not the question.

L.
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Re: When will / did you claim Social Security benefits?

Post by GerryL »

I tend to read a lot of online articles about finances in retirement, including the weekly Kotlifoff article on the PBS website, and I also read the comments. One thing I have noticed is that whenever a writer recommends waiting until 70 -- or as close to it as possible -- to collect SS, a swarm of commenters starts ranting about how stupid such advice is. They sound like conspiracy theorists, accusing the writer of being one of "them," i.e., some mysterious cabal that is apparently trying to prevent people from collecting SS. These commenters insist they will start at 62 and anyone who waits is foolish.

I guess it's just the typical angry commenter syndrome you see all over the internet (except here on BH.org). The silly thing is that the article writers are offering advice. They are explaining why it is a good idea for some/many people to wait. No one is trying to force anyone into postponing SS. Yeesh.
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Re: When will / did you claim Social Security benefits?

Post by Tamales »

Leeraar wrote:
Tamales wrote:
Leeraar wrote: This is not a strategy question. If you are single, with only one entitlement, it's pretty clear.
L.
Do tell! From the casual reading I've done on when to take SS, I've never seen anyone weed out single people as a "no-brainer" case.

It would seem to me that single people as a group have the same health, income, expenses, job security, and in some cases dependents concerns that married people have.
If you have a single entitlement, the age at which you choose to take it has only one answer.

How or why you decided when to take it is not the question.

L.
Still not clear what you mean since you just repeated the same sentence I asked about. Why does the age have only one answer for a single person? You are asking "when" so are you saying all singles have only one choice of when, regardless of life events? Seems hard to believe so perhaps you can elaborate.
A single can file-and-suspend too.
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Re: When will / did you claim Social Security benefits?

Post by mjdaniel »

I turn 62 this June. I will be signing up this Monday using the online system. My wife started her's as soon as she turned 62. I have read everything I can about the benefits of waiting and/or taking right away. We both get pensions and have sizeable IRA's and really don't need it right now, but I love money so much I have to have as much as I can get my hands on and don't want to wait.
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Re: When will / did you claim Social Security benefits?

Post by SpringMan »

Other, I retired at 57 and started SS at 65 even though my full retirement age was 66. Ditto for my same age spouse. Our genetics do not indicate favorable longevity. Spouse did not want to delay any longer and I conceded to her wishes.
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Re: When will / did you claim Social Security benefits?

Post by Leeraar »

GerryL wrote:I tend to read a lot of online articles about finances in retirement, including the weekly Kotlifoff article on the PBS website, and I also read the comments. One thing I have noticed is that whenever a writer recommends waiting until 70 -- or as close to it as possible -- to collect SS, a swarm of commenters starts ranting about how stupid such advice is. They sound like conspiracy theorists, accusing the writer of being one of "them," i.e., some mysterious cabal that is apparently trying to prevent people from collecting SS. These commenters insist they will start at 62 and anyone who waits is foolish.

I guess it's just the typical angry commenter syndrome you see all over the internet (except here on BH.org). The silly thing is that the article writers are offering advice. They are explaining why it is a good idea for some/many people to wait. No one is trying to force anyone into postponing SS. Yeesh.
Yes,

I am aware that Lawrence Kotlikoff has a personal and political agenda. Also, that many have extreme views on the idea or future of Social Security. But, "why" is not the question here. The simple question is "when". Should be non-controversial enough.

By the way, I am astounded by the result here. 2 of 3 Bogleheads responding to this poll are waiting until age 70. According to Kotlikoff, only 1 in 50 of the general population is. That's an amazing differential.

L.
You can get what you want, or you can just get old. (Billy Joel, "Vienna")
mptfan
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Re: When will / did you claim Social Security benefits?

Post by mptfan »

Wildebeest wrote:70.5
Really? I was under the impression that there is no benefit to waiting past the age of 70, and if you wait beyond that point, you are just throwing away benefits for no reason. Am I wrong about that?
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Leeraar
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Re: When will / did you claim Social Security benefits?

Post by Leeraar »

Tamales wrote:
Leeraar wrote:
Tamales wrote:
Leeraar wrote: This is not a strategy question. If you are single, with only one entitlement, it's pretty clear.
L.
Do tell! From the casual reading I've done on when to take SS, I've never seen anyone weed out single people as a "no-brainer" case.

It would seem to me that single people as a group have the same health, income, expenses, job security, and in some cases dependents concerns that married people have.
If you have a single entitlement, the age at which you choose to take it has only one answer.

How or why you decided when to take it is not the question.

L.
Still not clear what you mean since you just repeated the same sentence I asked about. Why does the age have only one answer for a single person? You are asking "when" so are you saying all singles have only one choice of when, regardless of life events? Seems hard to believe so perhaps you can elaborate.
A single can file-and-suspend too.
At what age will you take your maximized benefit? How you maximize it is not the question. The question is, at what age will (did) you take it?

I apologize if the intent of my question is not clear.

L.
You can get what you want, or you can just get old. (Billy Joel, "Vienna")
Trader Joe
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Re: When will / did you claim Social Security benefits?

Post by Trader Joe »

As early as I can. No need to wait.
vested1
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Re: When will / did you claim Social Security benefits?

Post by vested1 »

mjdaniel wrote:I turn 62 this June. I will be signing up this Monday using the online system. My wife started her's as soon as she turned 62. I have read everything I can about the benefits of waiting and/or taking right away. We both get pensions and have sizeable IRA's and really don't need it right now, but I love money so much I have to have as much as I can get my hands on and don't want to wait.
To each his own, as the choice is strictly a personal preference. However, not needing it would seem to be even more of a reason to delay and receive a greatly increased amount for a relatively painless effort. :beer
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Wildebeest
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Re: When will / did you claim Social Security benefits?

Post by Wildebeest »

mptfan wrote:
Wildebeest wrote:70.5
Really? I was under the impression that there is no benefit to waiting past the age of 70, and if you wait beyond that point, you are just throwing away benefits for no reason. Am I wrong about that?
You are right. I edited my original post. RMD muddled my brain.
The Golden Rule: One should treat others as one would like others to treat oneself.
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dcnut
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Re: When will / did you claim Social Security benefits?

Post by dcnut »

I turned 70 two weeks ago, and yesterday I received my first SS check. I did a file-and-suspend 3 years ago so my wife could get my spousal benefit when she turned 66.

Glenn
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EyeYield
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Re: When will / did you claim Social Security benefits?

Post by EyeYield »

When I hit 70 - The reason? Rght now I know what my expenses are and can cover them with the dividends and distributions that my portfolio generates. In six and a half years I do not know what new expenses I may have and my portfolio may not be generating enough to cover them. So my policy is, go with what you know now and save for the unknown future.
However, if I get sick tomorrow, I'll file the day after.
"The stock market is a giant distraction from the business of investing." - Jack Bogle
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Re: When will / did you claim Social Security benefits?

Post by obgraham »

I'm in the "62" crowd. For a good reason. Already retired and living off the bank account, we had to spit out a boatload for individual health insurance from 62 to 65. SS just barely covered the premium. So I figured Uncle Sam was buying my insurance. Sure, now at 69 I'm getting a bit less. But who knows when anyone will croak.

Take it when it's available. You never know. If you live to 100, kick yourself then.
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