If you had not been drawing on SS, would you not have been able to go on your cruises?
Don’t know, but do know that it would have been a lot tighter.
Going from memory, our SS was about $33,000/yr when we started it at 62.
The 13 day River cruise Moscow to St. Petersburg cost $11,000 total.
The average cost of our cruises & travel, 2009-2017, was $22,100 per year. Blown waaaaay up by the 80 day Asia & Pacific rim cruise at $65,000.
So the early SS more than covered all the cruises.
Last cruise was in 2019. Because ALL TRAVEL SHUT DOWN.
The Moscow to St. Petersburg river cruise was in 2018. If we had waited to 2019, we wouldn’t have been able to go. And, of course, now you also couldn’t go. Unpredictable when US citizens will be able to go again.
St. Pete was beautiful. The Hermitage, Church of the Spilled Blood, etc. Lots of history and neat & beautiful buildings. Hydrofoil boat from The Hermitage to Peterhof.
"Currently unavailable...unavailable to book via Tripadvisor." Duh!
But to get back to your question, “If you had not been drawing on SS, would you not have been able…”
It’s not about me. Not about our personal situation.
It’s a general point, that you can do things at 62 that you might not be able to do at 70+, and you cannot spend money at 62 that you won’t get until 70.
It would be a shame to eschew travel & other things just so you’d have more monthly income at 70—and then at 70 all you can do it look at travel brochures.
As the saying goes, nobody on their deathbed says “I wish I had spent more time at the office instead of with family.”