[laurencerowe]

> * Take nothing for granted. Social Security being the prime example; my mother waited until 65 to start taking it and so she barely enjoyed only 3 years of it. I refuse to repeat that, I am taking Social Security at 62 ASAP and screw anyone trying to tell me otherwise for any reason. It is imperative I live now, not tomorrow.

Not financial advice, but I think it's worth thinking separately about when you stop working and when you take Social Security.

If your retirement assets are mostly in a 401k or similar then you need to work out how to spread those out without them running out before you're gone. Annuities are incredibly expensive so delaying Social Security actually seems like the best way to insure somewhat against running out of money if you happen to live longer, which would make me feel more comfortable about spending more in retirement.

If I had a traditional pension which pays you the same amount each year and wanted to stop working at 62 then taking Social Security early would be much more attractive.

[Dalewyn]

Objectively, my mom was right to wait and in fact it can be argued she should have waited to 70. We run a small family business, so she had steady income right up until her deathbed. She didn't need that Social Security income.

But financial theory blew straight out the fucking window when I was going through her affairs.

One of the things I found from deep in her office was a notebook, in it were numbers figuring how much Social Security she would get if she took at <X> age all the way from age 62 to 70. She also extrapolated all the way to at least age 80; it was clear she intended on enjoying a long (semi-)retirement.

I also remembered at that point how mom approached us once when she was approaching 62 (and obviously in good health then) asking if she should wait or take Social Security ASAP. All of us (myself, my sister, my dad/her husband) all told her to take it ASAP; she ended up meeting halfway waiting to 65, but in hindsight we were clearly right to tell her to take ASAP.

Seeing that notebook and remembering that conversation still pains me greatly, because it's a whole lot of "could have" that got violently taken away from her due to literally sheer dumb bad luck. I absolutely refuse to repeat this if I can help it, so I'm taking Social Security ASAP at age 62.