Making Retirement Plans? Assume You'll Start Social Security at 62

When you set retirement savings goals, it helps to figure out how much you'll need your investments to produce. This requires some assumptions about both the age when you'll retire and the amount of money that will come from Social Security.

For many future retirees planning to work into retirement, some of their assumptions can get them into trouble. In particular, if you estimate the amount of your Social Security benefits based on claiming them at full retirement age or later, you may anticipate getting a much larger monthly check than you end up with.

To make sure this doesn't happen to you and leave you facing a financial shortfall, the best approach is to assume you'll start your benefits at 62 while trying to claim them later if you can.

Source Fool.com