Wait a little longer

In the scheme of very important things of the world, a relatively unimportant event happened over the weekend.  This middle-aged man had a birthday and can now proudly call himself 62-years-young.

I made it and I’m blessed.

Along with this magic number 62 comes a new entitlement of being able to start collecting a monthly Social Security benefit check from the government.  I’ve earned it so a natural first impression is to sign up immediately and start new money rolling into my bank account.

Middle-aged men who have come of this age know that the benefit amount is reduced when you start collecting before normal retirement age.  For this middle-aged man, full retirement age is 66 years and 2 months.  If I start collecting now, my benefit would be about 27 percent less than if I waited another 4 years until full retirement age.

There’s a greater financial incentive waiting even longer until age 70 at which time my benefit will be about 32 percent more than what it would be at full retirement age.

So, it all boils down to how long we think we’ll live.  Who knows is an honest answer so some guesswork is necessary while this middle-aged man looks carefully to his left and right crossing a busy street.

Having weighed all this carefully, over and over, this middle-aged man thinks he’ll wait a little longer.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum