In the United States, inflation has increased the price of everything. This situation is worldwide, but for American citizens it can be a problem if they want to claim Social Security retirement soon. As soon as you turn 62 you can start collecting Social Security, but this can be a bad idea if you do not have a very large retirement check. There are reasons not to ask for this retirement so early and delay the Social Security check.
If you apply for Social Security retirement at age 62, you will not receive 100% of your Social Security check. In this case you will have the 80%. This means that you will have 20% less than what you have contributed during your working years. Facing inflation and the COLA increase with less money is very difficult. Then it is better not to retire so early.
You can choose other options such as making a pension plan, but that will not prevent you from having to face inflation. The biggest problem is that the COLA will continue to increase in the future, so it is better that you are always prepared in the best way. Any benefit you receive should be welcomed.
Why retire at 62?
As we have already mentioned, retiring at age 62 means that we do not receive 100% of what we have contributed during our working years. Therefore, the Social Security will only give us 80%. This is the main reason, since economically it will directly affect everything we do. If we take into account that the price of everything is going up every year, it may be that in the future we will have problems collecting only 80% of our retirement.
Then, asking for benefit is the best option. An advisor can help us with benefits recommendations on what to do. Anyway, there are also general recommendations that work very well for everyone, as these recommendations ensure a rise in the monthly Social Security retirement check.
When is it best to retire and claim Social Security?
In this regard, the usual recommendation is to ask for Social Security retirement at age 67. With this you will get the Full Retirement Age (FRA), so you will receive 100% of the money you have contributed during your working years. This will benefit you every month so you can live better and have less problems with inflation and COLA.
Finally, the best option of all is to retire at age 70. After age 67, any year worked will significantly increase the monthly check that Social Security gives us. In this way, we will have more money and, therefore, we will be able to live better. After the age of 70, the retirement benefit no longer increases. We can continue working, yes, but we will not get a higher Social Security benefit.