3 Reasons I'll Be Taking Social Security Long Before Age 70

If you're a pre-retiree who's done at least a little research on your eventual retirement income, then you almost certainly know that the longer you wait to claim Social Security benefits, the bigger your monthly payments will be.

Indeed, the monthly checks being cashed by 62-year-olds -- the earliest age at which you can claim -- is only a little more than half the payments collected by those who wait until the maximum age of 70 to file. That's the chief reason you're often encouraged to wait as long as possible before beginning these benefits.

That being said, there's actually a case to be made for claiming Social Security benefits well before you turn 70. I'm thinking about doing so as early as I possibly can, in fact. Here are a few (related) reasons you might want to do the same.

1. I'm collecting as much as possible before any cuts

Let's be clear that there are no actual plans on the boards right now to cut Social Security. Yet, there's at least broad partisan agreement that Social Security can't continue on as it stands right now.

Some forecasts suggest that without adequate legislative action, something in the ballpark of a 20% reduction in payments sometime in the mid-2030s will be necessary in order to keep the program alive. That's before I'll reach the age of 70 -- although not leaps and bounds before -- so if the time frame is on target, then I'm just out of luck.

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If modest measures are taken to at least kick the insolvency can down the road though, it's possible I'll at least start collecting benefits before any actual cuts are put into effect. I'll remain subject to any eventual reduction in benefits, but at least I'll enjoy a few years of seeing every penny I'm due.

2. I'm never actually (fully) retiring

That being said, while I can say with some degree of certainty that I'll be slowing down later in life, I doubt I'll ever have any interest in not doing something constructive enough to earn a wage.

There's a downside to such a plan. That is, earning work-based income after you've already begun receiving Social Security retirement benefits poses the risk of a reduction of those payments. Specifically, if you've not yet reached what's considered your full retirement age (or FRA), for every $2 worth of annual work income you earn above the Social Security Administration's ceiling (it's $22,320 in 2024), your Social Security benefits are reduced by $1. If you work enough and earn enough wages, it's possible you won't be eligible to receive any Social Security benefits that year.

You're not actually losing money though. See, the Social Security Administration takes into account the amount of benefit you may have stopped receiving, and raises your future benefits as a result. Moreover, if you've already reached your full retirement age of between 66 and 67 (depending on when you were born), there's no reduction in benefits no matter how much you earn as an employee.

The kicker: On the off-chance I end up making more income than I usually do now, the Social Security Administration will raise my future payments to reflect this higher income. I'll still be paying FICA taxes on this income, after all.

3. I'll be investing any of this cash I don't need yet

Finally -- and this is key -- I fully intend to invest whatever Social Security income I'll be collecting before I actually need it.

It's a difficult number to determine simply because the underlying inputs are forever changing. But, the effective rate of return on your contributions to the Social Security fund is usually in line with the average U.S. Treasury yield. This puts them in a ballpark ranging anywhere from 2% to 5%, depending on the year.

You'll never see such figure officially touted by the Social Security Administration as you might expect from a mutual fund company, investment advisor, bank, or brokerage firm. The Social Security program doesn't even operate using such a paradigm. It can't. What are essentially annuitized payments to retired beneficiaries now are largely funded by the FICA payments being made to the program by pre-retired workers. The size of both groups, however, is not only constantly changing, but doing so somewhat unpredictably.

Regardless, I'm pretty sure I could achieve at least a slightly stronger rate of return on any benefit payments I collect now than I would by postponing my Social Security payments until I'm 70 years old.

Make it make sense for you

This is just me, of course. What works for me might not work for you. For instance, I've got the option of simply scaling back on my work rather than outright stopping it altogether, but your job may only be a full-time position.

I'm also growing a retirement nest egg that I can leave in aggressive long-term growth investments even if the market hits a rough patch a few years before I turn 70. I should have enough work-based and Social Security income at the time to get through it, if need be. Other people might not have such a choice.

Regardless, don't simply plan on postponing your Social Security payments as long as possible just because doing so leads to bigger eventual checks. There's much to be said for the additional flexibility achieved by putting this money in your hands sooner rather than later. It just depends on what you're going to do with this additional cash when you get it.

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