The Best Reason to Take Social Security Long Before Age 70
You'll face a basic trade-off when it comes to deciding when to take your Social Security benefit: time versus money. The later you wait -- up until age 70 -- the larger each check you receive will be, but by waiting, you'll receive fewer of those checks throughout your lifetime. That trade-off has led to lots of digital ink getting spilled debating the optimal age to claim benefits.
Much of the argument is centered on your "breakeven age," the age at which you end up with the same amount of dollars whether you collected at the earliest possible or latest possible age. While considering that age has some merit, it misses the best reason to take Social Security long before age 70. And that reason can be summed up in a simple question: What exactly are you going to do with the additional money later in life?
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Source Fool.com
