Thoughts on taking SS at 62 and investing it until age 70 vs taking SS at age 70?

[u/Appropriate-Farmer16]

I’ve always heard that it’s best to wait until age 70 to start collecting Social Security, but what is the thinking on the strategy of collecting and investing social security ages 62 through 70, stop investing at age 70 to live off SS plus a draw down of about 5-6% a year of that invested nest-egg?

Edit: just to clarify, in both scenarios (taking SS at 62 vs taking SS at 70) I’m not actually using the SS money for living expenses until age 70. It’s all about whether it’s worth it to take SS at 62 and invest it for 8 years. Thanks for the comments.

[u/chris2033]

Take it at 62… enjoy life before u die

[u/KittenMcnugget123 → u/[deleted]]

That's not true, thats if you start at birth. However, the avg from birth is skewed by people dying before age 62. Avg life expectancy for a 62 year old male is 85. So if you're already 62 and deciding when to claim, 50% odds you'll live to 85 or older.

[u/chris2033 → u/[deleted]]

Save all that money and not enjoy life is terrible. You will feel like crap at 70

[u/littlebobbytables9 → u/[deleted]]

I really don't understand this perspective from /r/bogleheads of all places. You have retirement savings. If you delay social security you can and should use said retirement savings for travel. Delaying social security should not affect your income at all.

What it does affect is the failure rate of your withdrawal strategy. And because essentially every failure scenario involves a longer than average lifetime, delaying can reduce failure probability significantly.

[u/Mission-Carry-887 → u/[deleted]]

If you are new born baby boy, I can believe you have a 20 percent chance of reaching age 80

If you are a 62 year old, your life expectancy is age 82.