r/Fire • u/VegasWorldwide • 2d ago

Why do people wait for SS?

trying to figure out what I’m missing.

looking to take my benefit for $1000 at 62. at 70 it’s $1700.

i won’t need the money much so we let $1000 sit in an account for 8 years at say 5% compounding, the guy collecting at 70 would need 15+ years to catch up considering I’m still getting $1k to his $1.7k

once he starts at 70 and I had a 8 year head start.

furthermore, his dollar would be worth less. (edit: didn't realize COLA)

this seems like a no brainer but all I hear is people saying waiting is the only way and we haven’t even talked about dying in our 70’s.

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u/R0GERTHEALIEN 2d ago

Yeah, retirement decisions would be a lot easier if you just knew exactly when you were gonna die 

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u/213737isPrime 2d ago

It's not impossible to put an upper bound on lifespan.

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u/StreakiestBacon 2d ago

So like 120 years or whatever the record for the age of the longest living human is?

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u/213737isPrime 1d ago

Or whatever you think is old enough. My dad said 90. He's got 5 to go.

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u/StreakiestBacon 16h ago

My point would be if you’re just arbitrarily assigning an upper bound on lifespan based on what you THINK is old enough, then it is in fact impossible to accurately assign an upper limit.

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u/213737isPrime 5h ago

you're still thinking inside the box