Personal Finance (Not Investing) • My Social Security Timing "Aha" Moment (hint: It's Insurance, not an Investment)

Most of us approaching 60 have looked at charts of social security "break even" age or total lifetime benefits, etc. Then one night it occurred to me; if I die before I break even, I don't care, I'll be dead! If I come down with a terminal disease at age 65, not taking SS for the last 3 years won't be of much concern.

OTOH, my wife and I took early retirement (61 & 57) which carries some risk of running out of money. When to take SS benefits should be framed around reducing the risk of outliving our nest egg, not some vague concept of maximizing your net worth at death. Think of it as longevity insurance or old age insurance as it's actually named, OASDI.

YMMV, but for us, it makes sense to delay benefits.

It is referenced as longevity insurance often here but it isn’t the only consideration. We have no lack of SS claiming threads. There is nothing new under the sun to be said on this topic that is unique or insightful.

Cheers

Louder for the people in the back!

This is true for many/most discussions. Maybe bogleheads should be shut down before it annoys some people any further

Yeah, just freeze everything and point poeple to the wikis. You know about the wikis, right? Those are the pages that nobody goes to first before posting questions on the forum.

I'm beginning to like the idea of the mega-threads for those things that come up again and again. Makes it a lot easier to ignore repetitive subjects, especially those for which there will never ever be a consensus and for which no new arguments are being presented...

Cheers.

Statistics: Posted by Tom_T — Fri Jan 19, 2024 7:01 am — Replies 40 — Views 2959