Tip #3: Measure the Maximum Growth of Social Security at 70
Waiting to claim Social Security at 70 represents the ultimate strategy for maximizing your guaranteed, lifelong monthly income. The government rewards your immense patience by adding delayed retirement credits to your baseline benefit for every single month you wait past your Full Retirement Age. These highly valuable credits accumulate at a guaranteed rate of 8 percent per year.
If your Full Retirement Age is 67, delaying your claim until 70 results in a massive 24 percent increase above your primary insurance amount. Using the previous example, your two thousand dollar baseline benefit surges to two thousand four hundred and eighty dollars per month. This substantially increased amount serves as a powerful defense against inflation, ensuring your purchasing power remains unshakeable well into your later decades.
This guaranteed 8 percent annual growth vastly outperforms the conservative returns you might find in certificates of deposit, standard bonds, or traditional savings accounts. Furthermore, the annual cost-of-living adjustments apply directly to this higher baseline, meaning your yearly raises grow exponentially larger over time. You simply cannot find another guaranteed, government-backed investment that yields such consistent, risk-free growth.
You should heavily consider waiting until 70 if you enjoy excellent physical health, possess a strong family history of longevity, and have the financial means to comfortably support yourself during the gap years. Delaying your claim removes the anxiety of outliving your money, giving you the freedom to spend your savings confidently in your later years.
As a CPA for over 30 years, I have had numerous clients where we had to make this decision. The ONLY situations where the client was better off delaying taking the payment was where they were continuing working.
You read that correctly.
Because of the government’s policy of reducing the Social Security benefit, Under no other scenario did it turn out better to delay taking their Social Security benefits.
Why?
Tax rates rarely went down. Between investments, part time work, and other factors (like inflation and state rate hikes), taxes actually increased during the retirement.
As the article itself says, the breakeven point after investing the excess funds (a total of $84,000+) is between 78-82. The combined number for men and women just hit 79. If all of the benefits begin at the same time as the average person dies, it makes no sense to delay taking your Social Security. You should note that the Chart showing the breakeven point does not accurately reflect those facts.
Do I take social security next year in June when I turn 67. I am retired and not working?
I retired at 64 to take care of my wife that had just had neck fusions front and back. I knew I would make less than at full retirement age, but weighed the difference and decided that 64 was right for me. I was already a retired Marine and had just retired as a County Deputy. I’ve been retired 9 years now and am extremely happy I retired early. What I would have lost by not retiring until 70, would have taken decades to get back, IF I would have lived long enough.
ABSOLUTELY!@@
Good information
My husband retired at 65 due to being ill should we had signed up for ssi disability?
I do turn 67 in June. Thankfully my health has been improving due to some good and forced choices. The plan is to start receiving my money back from social security on my birthday and pay off all my high interest loans through a debt avalanche. That will take a year. Then pay down our house another 4 years plus invest so we have approximately 100,000 in the bank with all debt paid.