5 Reasons I'll Be Taking Social Security Long Before Age 70 -- and 5 Reasons I May Delay

Social Security is rather vital to most of us. Consider, for example, that Social Security benefits make up nearly a third of the income of those older than 65. Even more eye-opening, among recipients of Social Security benefits aged 65 and older, those benefits made up fully 90% or more of the income for 12% of men and 15% of women.

One of the biggest retirement decisions many of us face is choosing at what age we will claim our Social Security benefits. It's a decision I'm wrangling with myself. Here's a look at why I may start taking my benefits early and why I may delay doing so.

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Social Security 101

Each of us can start collecting Social Security as early as age 62. If we do, we'll end up with smaller checks -- but many more of them. We can get bigger (but fewer) checks by delaying starting to collect Social Security -- up to age 70, after which delaying offers no benefit. With each year we delay beyond your "full retirement age" (66 or 67 for most of us), our benefits will grow by about 8%.

The table below shows how much of our full benefits we'll receive depending on when we claim them:

Data source: Social Security Administration.

Note, too, that the Social Security system is designed so that those who live average-length lives will collect roughly the same total benefits, regardless of when they start collecting.

When is the best age at which to claim Social Security benefits?

The best age will differ from person to person, due to everyone's unique circumstances. But there has been some research on what the best age is for most people to start collecting benefits -- and that age is 70.

For example, a 2019 study conducted by online financial planning company United Income looked at the claiming decisions of about 20,000 retired workers using data from the University of Michigan's Health and Retirement Study. It found that:

• "About 57% of retirees would build more wealth through their life if they waited to claim until they were 70 years old (when only 4% of retirees currently claim)."
• "... only 6.5% of retirees would have more wealth if they claimed prior to turning 64 (when over 70% of retirees currently claim benefits)."

Meanwhile, a 2022 report published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, Altig, Kotlikoff, and Ye noted: "More than 90% [of retirees] should wait till age 70 [to claim Social Security benefits]. Only 10.2% appear to do so." The researchers added that "... virtually all American workers age 45 to 62 should wait beyond age 65 to collect."

Now let's review some reasons to claim early -- or late.

Why you might claim your Social Security benefits early

Here are some solid reasons to start collecting your benefits early:

• You're likely to live an average-length or shorter-than-average-length life.
• You need -- or want -- those dollars as soon as possible, perhaps to enable you to retire, travel, pay down debt, and/or achieve some other goal.
• You're worried about Social Security's surplus running dry, as it's expected to do within a decade. If so, you might want to start collecting as much as you can as soon as you can.
• You're coordinating with your spouse: Married couples can use various Social Security strategies. For example, the higher earner might delay claiming until age 70, while the lower earner collects earlier. This can provide some income early, while you maximize the bigger benefit -- so that when one spouse dies, the survivor will get to keep that maximized benefit.
• You're suddenly out of the work force, and until you can enroll in Medicare at age 65, you need extra income to pay for health insurance. (The cost of healthcare is a major factor for retiree budgets.)

Why you might claim your Social Security benefits late

There are also solid reasons to delay collecting your benefits, such as:

• You stand a reasonable chance of living a longer-than-average life.
• You're in good financial shape and are able to wait until age 70 to maximize your benefits.
• You're still working -- and you enjoy your work -- so continuing to work is an inviting idea.
• Due to a strategy with your spouse, you're aiming to maximize your benefit, which your spouse can later claim if you die first.
• You want to make your benefits as big as possible, to get the biggest bumps from cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs).

What should you do -- and what am I doing?

Take all these considerations into account and see what makes the most sense for you.

I myself have not quite decided what I'll do. There's a good chance that I'll compromise a bit, claiming my benefits somewhere between age 62 and 70.

It's a good idea to keep up with developments coming out of Washington, too, as Social Security may well undergo some changes in the coming years.

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