When you have been working for years and can remember dreaming about the freedom to spend Monday mornings sunning yourself out front in your bathrobe, the chance to pick up your Social Security about ten minutes after you become eligible can be hard to resist. People figure that it is a pretty sharp retirement strategy to seriously question the wisdom of putting it off. What if they don't make it long enough to enjoy all the promised extra benefits? What if they plan to work five years past the minimum retirement age of 62, but they check out just a year later at 63? That would be a life wasted, with no enjoyment at all, wouldn't it?
Well, not exactly. If you are weighing risks that finely, it might occur to you that living to 80 would be the bigger risk in all of this. Living to 80, with no money. You could really go and put your claim in for your Social Security check the moment you hit 62, all the way until you reach 70. But the longer you stay away from it, the bigger your reward. The very least you could do, would be to wait until the minimum retirement age to apply (and that is not the same as the time you make up your mind to really stop working). What kind of retirement strategy would it be to lose a third of your potential Social Security benefits?
Sure, it is easy to say, that you simply mustn't retire until you're 70. But is anything ever that simple? There are all kinds of other things you need to factor in. For example, the time you started saving, your general state of health, your spouses salary, among others. The only thing the experts say you should keep in mind here is, if you have debts that you are paying interest on; only then would it always be a good retirement strategy to cash in your chips early. You could try a retirement calculator like on the website AnalyzeNow.
Usually, it is much more easy to plan your retirement strategy when you are by yourself, as opposed to when you have to plan for your husband or wife as well. But there is one benefit to planning with a spouse who also claims retirement benefits.Whoever makes the smaller paycheck, can apply for their Social Security check right away at 62, and the other one who makes more, can defer retirement for a few years, and that way you can burn the candle at both ends. Or how about this? Your retirement strategy could always include the spousal benefits plan too. Once the higher earning husband (or wife) reaches full retirement age, they can help their spouse, who earns less, qualify for spousal benefits. All you have to do is, file for retirement benefits as soon as you hit the right age, but then you can immediately suspend them. This allows you to look to the government like you're not claiming any benefits at all; and so, you won't be putting your bigger paycheck at risk later on. But you only suspended your own benefits. Your spouse will still receive her half of your spousal benefits, and everyone is happy (and legal).
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