Why I’m Taking My Social Security at 62
Let me start with complete and utter clarity: I never offer advice for others, everyone’s situation is drastically different, and my psychological and financial foundation has no bearing on the decisions you should make in your own respective lives.
That said, I invite you to view my content, always, as something to get the wheels turning and to leave you wanting to learn more about your situation and what is right for you.
As some of you may know, I tend to view the majority of our financial decisions through a psychological lens. In fact, I cannot really divorce how we think about money from how we were raised to think about the art of living well. This week, I posted yet another video about why I’ll look to take my own social security benefits at 62, and though there is some financial rationale behind my own thought process, I want to highlight that the number one thing that’s been on my mind about this choice would be a commitment to living life before it’s simply too late to live 100% on my own terms. In other words: At some point, we need to decide, deliberately, to stop deferring what we’ve spent decades deferring.
Enough of my long-winded opening, here are 3 reasons I’d take it at 62 (with some added nuance that I can’t possibly get to in short form video content):
The Break-Even Illusion
People love to say, “If you wait until 70, you’ll get more each month.” Although true, I continue to be curious as to why we’re focusing on a monthly cash flow 8 years ahead of when we could start earning a monthly cash flow. One of the foundational tenets of finance is that a dollar today is simply worth more than a dollar tomorrow for all sorts of reasons.
So I look at this in the aggregate and realize that simply by adding up what I’d get monthly starting at 62 vs. what I’d get both at FRA and at Full, my break even points are 77 and 81, respectively. Do I think I’ll live until 81? Hopefully. Do I think my number one concern at 81 will be monthly cash flow? I sure hope not. So you’d have to live long enough (and well enough) to make this waiting game worth it, and I still don’t think it’s necessarily worth it if you plan carefully in advance.
Time is My Most Valuable Asset
When we start talking about retirement (and potential loss of life), doesn’t take much for my brain to wander to my own mortality and how I spend my life. A dollar in my 60s is worth way more to me than a dollar in my 80s because it gives me one more opportunity to buy back some time as early as possible. If I take it early, I can travel, invest, and actually enjoy it while I’m still young enough to do things that (most likely) I won’t be able to do to such an extent when I’m 80+. Just because I’ll get more later doesn’t mean I’ll get to use more later.
Stop Deferring Your Life
And without a doubt the number one reason driving my thinking is that we, traditionally, are told to wait, and wait, and wait (and work, and work, and work) through life to get to some elusive concept of retirement. Well, once I get there, I’d like to be in that moment and not be immediately re-conditioned to think that by waiting another 15-20 years, that’s what I can really start to game the system.
Textbook financial advice is about delaying gratification forever. But money is and always will be a means to an end. Work now, enjoy later. And at some point in our lives, perhaps quite unexpectedly, that concept of “later” runs out. Taking Social Security at 62 isn’t about maximizing my dollars—it’s about maximizing life. And I refuse to wait until my body slows down just to get a slightly higher number on a statement that has yet to be exchanged for a good or service.
But back to how I began: There’s no right answer for everyone, and I never want anyone to base decisions off of my own shenanigans. But if you’ve spent decades saving, working, and deferring, I would ask that you make sure you’re not waiting so long that you neveractually get to enjoy it.
Hope you all have a great week and that the above proves somewhat thought provoking for some of you.
Tyler
