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This guy makes a good point about taking your social security at age 62.

Here he makes some more good points about taking your social security at age 62.

jamesbond wrote: ↑

November 26th, 2023, 5:00 am

Here he makes some more good points about taking your social security at age 62.

That's only if you fully intend to stop working.

This guy babbles incessantly without saying what exactly the social security rules are. I guess I should look into this when I have time, and then I can post what I find here.

He doesn't take inflation into account with his calculations, or how much money you could make off of 102K. If you keep working, how does that affect social security income?

Some people may want social security income to be as high as possible in case they end up relying only on it.

He did an analysis which works for his situation and than assumes it works for everyone else. You have to look at the rules and apply it to your situation. You may get a different result. The video is stupid clickbait.

MrMan wrote: ↑

November 26th, 2023, 2:30 pm

He doesn't take inflation into account with his calculations, or how much money you could make off of 102K. If you keep working, how does that affect social security income?

Some people may want social security income to be as high as possible in case they end up relying only on it.

To break this down a bit, if you had money coming in from social security that you collected early, put into some kind of investment that brought you a return on investment, that money and return on investment could keep compounding during those years you would otherwise have been trying to collect. On the other hand, inflation is ongoing, and you would have to calculate the predicted effects of inflation on your income. So you'd probably need to break down all these calculations down like one of those mortgage or insurance tables, but more complicated than that. You'd have to apply rates of return and inflation.

This is treating this as any other stream of income that you aren't dependent on. If you know you will need X amount of money to live on for the rest of your life, nearly risk free, and you can get that if you work more years in your 60's, the value of having an amount that keeps you from being destitute, theoretically guaranteed, for life, might be valuable to you. If you keep working you have money to live on while you can work. Then when you get social security, that (theoretically, supposedly) guaranteed stream continues on. It's not the same as if you are set financially and are just counting extra income. If that were the case, retiring early seems sensible.

But what if you have a job you really enjoy doing? Let's say you enjoy playing your guitar for a club or being a lifeguard on the beach or teaching math or whatever you do? Why retire early if you can get more retirement later?

If I retired, or just came into money young, I would definitely want to live a very productive life that has a positive impact on others. I wouldn't want to just sit under an umbrella on the beach, then go to the mountains in some other country, then back to an umbrella on the beach somewhere else. That kind of stuff is okay from time to time (I might lay down to rest at the beach a bit, but I prefer to be out in the water.) Retiring early makes sense if retirement leads to a more impactful life. A retiree could start a business or charity or volunteer.