Choosing Social Security Benefits

I was one of the first to take a hard look at the best time to begin Social Security retirement benefits. Since then, a number of others climbed on board with their own studies and analyses. Economists are very interested in the topic. It’s good to see so many joining the discussion, and satisfying that their conclusions largely are the same as my original ones. Here’s the latest, from economist John Sloven of Stanford. It concludes that it’s best to wait to take benefits for most people. It goes into a little more precision about when people with certain demographic profile should begin their benefits and also points out that it makes sense to tap nest eggs early if that enables you to delay receiving Social Security benefits until the optimum time. Be sure to also read the booklet that is referenced early in this link.

Our conclusion is that most

people should be using at

least a substantial part of their

retirement savings to defer Social

Security rather than supplement

it. Almost no one is getting it

right. It may be that people

simply don’t trust that Social

Security will still be there if they

defer. If that is what they think,

I feel that they are exaggerating

the likelihood of Social Security

cutbacks for people currently

of retirement age. I have never

seen a Social Security reform

proposal that did not protect

people 55 and over.