The minimum age to start collecting Social Security throughout the United States is 62. But this does not mean that workers start collecting pension instead of salary at that age. The final decision is always a personal one, and all workers must choose when is the best time to apply for Social Security. Since there are several factors that make the pension higher or lower it is important to look at why retirees need to delay payment.
To get a pension of $4,194 per month, which is the maximum, you need to retire at age 70. Not everyone has to reach that figure. Each situation is totally personal, so each case has to be studied on a case-by-case basis. The other two fundamental factors that change the amount of the Social Security check are the salary as a worker and the years worked. The more years we work before applying for retirement, the better our pension will be. The same goes for salary.
But there are reasons why delaying retirement is a must. Let’s find out these reasons, as we could be in one of them without knowing it. Remember that each case is personal, but you can always learn something by looking at other people’s situations.
Reasons for delaying Social Security retirement
There are many and very different reasons for delaying Social Security retirement. Some of these reasons may not be very universal, but they are real situations. Let’s take a look at them.
- We need to get a larger benefit. If we need a larger source of income, we need to delay retirement. It seems obvious, but it’s really the case.
- We don’t have enough savings. Saving money for retirement is very important and not all workers do it. When we start collecting Social Security we should have money saved, since the pension check will always be less than the retirement as a worker.
- Inflation. The reasons for delaying retirement will always be economic and inflation is one of them. In the future everything will be much more expensive and we have to be prepared for that. In spite of this, we also have to take into account the COLA, which helps us to get an annual increase in Social Security.
- Medical expenses. As long as we are working we may have health insurance. If we stop working at age 62 we will have a time when we will not have our health covered. Until the age of 65 we cannot apply for Medicare, so we must take this into account for our plan.
In addition to this, there are many people who will find various other reasons for delaying Social Security.