Taking the Mystery Out of When to Start Taking Social Security

Ask any 4 people when they intend to start taking social security benefits and you might get 4 different answers. Ditto with how long should you keep working and how that work will impact your social security benefits (short answer: working longer is usually a good thing for your benefits). Even when to start with Medicare is not well understood (and this is the easiest one to answer: everyone should sign up 3 months before their 65th birthday).

The Social Security Administration is actually doing a very good job of helping to educate the public and remove the mystery out of the issue. As they point out, it is NOT a “one size fits all” kind of question – everyone’s situation is a bit different. To that end the SSA has come out with a short but informative podcast that will be an excellent overview for most people. You can download the podcast and other materials using this link at the Social Security Administration

Topretirements has also developed an extensive article, “A Surprising Answer to When to Start Taking Social Security Benefits“. Our article has some good background and a raft of excellent links for further reference.

Short Answer:
It all Depends!

Give us your opinion either here in our Comments section (below), or in the Topretirements Forum Topic: When to Start Taking Benefits