That’s where people get the math wrong. If you have more money over your lifetime with a larger monthly SS benefit at age 70, that means you can withdraw more from your retirement nestegg today for travel and other leisure pursuits because you’ll need a smaller portfolio withdrawal at age 70 when SS kicks in.
Take the $182,000 that the average person leaves on the table and go on a World cruise today. If you don’t live to the SS breakeven age of 78, you won’t need a nest egg large enough to last until age 90 either.
Most people have a hard time understanding the fact that a simple S&P 500 index fund out performs 95% of active mutual fund managers. It’s doubly hard where you’re talking about actuarial science and the “contingent life probabilities” of dying at various ages with a portfolio under annual withdrawals.
It’s much easier to just believe what they tell you on Fox News, “Social Security is going broke, so take it early.”, and not do any thinking.
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