When to Take the Money (Social Security) and Run
This is a follow up of an original article, “Don’t Do It,” dated November 20, 2007, and “The Benefits of Delaying Retirement,” dated yesterday. In both articles, I made the case that taking benefits at age 62 is usually a mistake. Today, we’ll cover the exceptions. After a lot of reading on the topic I have been able to come up with three, two fairly common ones and one quite a bit more obscure: Exception #1 – Shortened Life Expectancy . I was going to say illness for this one but a "life expectancy" test is really more accurate, because it might include family medical history as well. I indicated yesterday that if you run the numbers, you can come up with a breakeven date (often in the late 70s) beyond which you are better off for having waited. It stands to reason then that if you have reason to believe that you won’t make it to that date, you are better off taking what you can get as soon as you can get it. Exception #2 – REAL Financial Need . I can’t emphasize the word “R...