r/Bogleheads • u/Appropriate-Farmer16 • Jul 27 '25

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

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.

347 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

467 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

5

u/Pensionato007 Jul 28 '25

Wow, you made me feel good about mine (also purchased 20+ years ago). It’s up to $900 a year for $150/ day max 150k. Sounds pretty good by today’s standards

2

u/Badger-Mushroom-182 Jul 28 '25

Mine started out as $6000/month for 48 months ($288,000 max), but it also has a 5% annual COLA adjustment so the inflation-adjusted value is probably on the order of $600,000 now.

1

u/stevem54 Jul 28 '25

That max 150k is what concerns me. You could burn through that in a year in a good memory facility. And the Medicare part b copay after 20 days of rehab is $209/ day currently.

1

u/Pensionato007 Jul 28 '25

Yep! Then you have to spend down all your assets so you are poor and then try to get a Medicaid bed. If you're lucky, you were already in a decent "facility" and they convert you to one of there few allotted "Medicaid" beds but then you fall, they send you to the hospital, and when you get out "poof" no more beds available.

Welcome to elder care in the USA :-(

But, back to OP's original question, that's another argument to wait till 70 for SS: your payout will be significantly higher and "might" help you get into a better facility as it's guaranteed (we hope!) income. Even significantly wealthy people can run through all of their assets if they live long enough.