the amount you receive monthly is based on highest 10 years I think... and many are just achieving top earnings at late 50s, early 60s. Also insurance needs to be considered. And can you live ok with the lesser amount.
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and of course..what will you do with the extra "leisure" time (fight with spouse ? lol )

Each year is multiplied by a different number to adjust for inflation. There is a worksheet you can use at the SS website, with the multiplier, as well as a calculator to do the estimate for you.
http://www.socialsecurity.gov/estimator/

I'm currently earning enough to knock some very low income years (college years, years of partial employment, etc. I've knocked 2 college years out, which caused my estimate to jump a little.

I was thinking of something else... but whether it is 10,20,35 years
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the last working years often are the years one makes the most money, and it should be considered.
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nice that for you it worked !!!!!

yeah, the last working years are the highest paying, except when they aren't.

In the current environment, if you lose your job around 50 (which I did when high tech crashed, followed by 911) then good luck getting anything, let alone high paying.

I've worked about 38 years so far, and am hanging by a thread trying to hold out at least another year to 62 when I can collect, or if possible to 63 or 64 to replace a couple more very low years with somewhat better ones. So no, it's not working out so great.

My highest earning years were 94-2001. My 20s were mostly minimum wage, except waitressing which was less. Oh, and the summer that my father embezzled money from his company by listing me as a 1099 employee, taking the earnings and sticking me with the tax bill, along with interest, penalties and a letter from the IRS threatening jail if I didn't pay up immediately.

I had an accountant crunch the numbers for me and he said 'wait."

But I barely made it out...there was a mow down of everybody over the age of 60 and at 62 I was tempted to throw in the towel...I toughed it out by rather deftly announcing in May that I would retire in early December (after my 65th birthday in September) and that was no coincidence. Since I told coworkers I had decided to retire then, management would have looked like they were firing me for my age and that would have sparked a lawsuit...they could see the handwriting on the wall...in the meantime I arranged to get a part time job after retiring, which I secured before I left...it worked out well...

We have a Social Security group. Why won't you repost there?

The idea was that cost of living adjustments would create yearly check increases, thus over time more money would add up to early retirement being cost effective.
Of course, since 2008, cost of living raises have been infrequent, and miniscule when they do occur, plus Medicare deductions have increased.

That said, I did start my SS at 62, since my work earnnigs made it favorable.

smartest move I made. I love every single second of my free time, our budget increased because there are no work related expenses ( gas, car insurance decreased, don't have to buy work clothes, zero deductions from earnings, so I keep all of my income).

As it is, I'm not sure I can survive until 62 without going homeless. The job market sucks. The work I have been getting is low paying and high effort, the kind of thing that 20 and 30 somethings might thrive on. But sometimes, I get so fucking tired, I can't eat, which exacerbates a bit of a GI problem that has been plaguing me, where I can't keep food down. I feel like I'm spiraling downward.

My living situation is for the birds, and RW birds at that. The landlady wakes up and fires up the Faux News channel for "background sound" or some such bullshit. Housing subsidies, if they can be had, seem to start at 62 also, so I'm kind of screwed there. I'm in too good of shape for disability, but not good enough to do the hard labor that seems to be the only thing I can find. Some times I just want to drive my truck into a bridge abutment so I can qualify for disability. With my luck, it wouldn't work anyway.

It's like that thread in the lounge: Life sucks. My addition: ...and then you die.

you hang in there - keep working, because it will help increase those SS benefits and certainly apply to receive it at age 62

keep talking to us - someone is always here at DU

I can still work part time to supplement it. I just have to watch my earnings.

Not the way we were told it would be back in the glorious 70's.

researching your Social Security options to best suit you - lots of people just don't think about it until they need it, and then they do the wrong thing - yes indeed

I hear you about the 70's - the problem with people our age is we saw how our parents handled retirement, then were told one thing and then forced to change tactics midway through our working years, leaving us less time than following generations to recoup - it truly sucks but I don't envy the younger folk either

Reagan raised the rates so we could pay our parents SS AND put money in for our own to cover the 'Baby Boomer' bubble. Now the fucking Repubs want to steal that.

we must keep fighting the fight, we must not give up Wounded Bear

He turned 62 in January and really wants to retire. Since he was mostly working so we could insurance and we can now get covered through the ACA, he can consider it now. Working retail at over 60, standing on your feet all day with no breaks, is no picnic.

We've had the discussion of the difference in payment between retiring this year and waiting several more years to increase the monthly payments. Frankly, no amount of money will make up for the exhaustion and pain he has, so I am ready for him to retire.

This article has convinced me that even if the money was a serious factor, it wouldn't be worth it.

considering how much healthcare costs, you and your husband may be right to retire early......if you can afford to have a financial planner do an assessment of your circumstances, that would be ideal

Because of a torn and calcified tendon. He was hoping that would help the pain he was having but it didn't. I need to call his foot doctor for another appointment to see if there is anything that can be done for it.

I've been retired for over a decade since my various problems made it so I couldn't run the farm or work with the horses anymore. Since my husband had to work off the farm to get health insurance, once my back and knees went out and I couldn't handle it, we've leased the facilities. That helps with the income a little.

Financially we can do it, especially with ACA health insurance. Things will be tight, but they are already. And I would love to be able to spend some quality time with my husband of (soon to be0 37 years. Most weekends he can only rest up to face the next week's work so we can't do things together like we used to.

sounds like you've already learned how to live lean, and you two certainly deserve some time together

To have him gone all day every day for the last 13 years has been hard on our relationship. He didn't mind the job originally, but when the business was bought out by a large corporation, the changes in management were horrendous.

Now they don't want to have as many people working, jerk the hours around so he never knows when he's working from one week to the next, piss off the most productive people so they all quit, then blame the remaining workers for drops in productivity and customer complaints. All of this for crap pay though the benefits are decent.

The other part is I have to check with all our doctors to see if they are in network for the ACA policies available. And find out how much vision and dental insurance will run.

<sigh>

disgusting

But with every manager change, every HR update, conditions get worse.

It doesn't matter that the customers are upset they can't get the services they were used to so they are leaving - upper management blames the workers. Oh well, if the company is less profitable because of this, it's their own doing.

When the original company was still owned by the hippie that started it, there were plenty of workers being treated decently, lots of services, happy customers - all the things that made the company profitable that the big corporation wanted to buy it. Now the big corporation has basically dismantled everything that induced the purchase.

do I hold out for the extra money / benefits or would it be better for my mental / physical health to pack it in.......I feel sorry for younger workers, many of whom will never know this was not always how it was

I have been wanting to start a new one but I can't do it all alone. My husband can help me with this one, too, the way he did with the farm.

The only problem is that over the years I have gotten into a couple of hobbies that take a lot of my time, but one of those will be the basis of the new business, so it's not all bad. The other will just have to move to a lesser place!

I tell them I'll be glad to crunch the numbers for them, but first they'll need to tell me when they plan to die.

They said that anybody waiting for the fatter check later might not be around that long - "you never know."

But really *here* is some useful bit:

If you have a great plan that allows you retirement WAY early, each year that you don't work (before 62, 65, 67 whatever) is a ZERO YEAR, and whatever you were projected to get later DIMINISHES each ZERO YEAR. All your working years/contributions are averaged together and the ZERO YEARS are just THAT. It makes a difference in real increments.

For someone who has already worked steadily for over 30 - 35 years with increasing wages a few zero years at the end may not make much difference. One needs to sit down with a SS rep and run the numbers to see what the implications are before retirement.

She's turning 66 this week and is going to use a little of it to help defray the cost of her eldest (and smartest) son visiting in 8 weeks. She still works full time and will for another couple years.

After reading this I'm glad she did it now rather than waiting.

good visit.

It will be the first time in three years I get to see my family.

For each 2$ earned you lose $1 in your SS check. That is the bad news. The good news is that you may be increasing your high 35 average by continuing to work, which will add to your benefit. In some situations you quickly recover the wage penalty. Of course for someone not making wages there is no penalty. Other factors which come into play are your health - if you have a chronic illness and are not likely to live long enough to make up the amount you would have earned by taking SS early then it makes sense to take it as soon as you can.

If you continue working:

1. If we withhold some of your benefits because you continue to work, we will pay you a higher monthly benefit amount when you reach your full retirement age. In other words, if you would like to work and earn more than the exempt amount, you should know that it will not, on average, reduce the total value of lifetime benefits you receive from Social Security—and may actually increase them. Here is how this works: after you reach full retirement age, we will recalculate your benefit amount to give you credit for any months in which you did not receive some benefit because of your earnings. In addition, as long as you continue to work and receive benefits, we will check your record every year to see whether the additional earnings will increase your monthly benefit.
http://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10147.pdf

2. Here is how it works:
If you are younger than full retirement age, $1 in benefits will be deducted for each $2 in earnings you have above the
annual limit. In the year you reach your full retirement age, your benefits will be reduced $1 for every $3 you earn over an
annual limit until the month you reach full retirement age. Once you reach full retirement age, you can keep working, and your Social Security benefit will not be reduced no matter how much you earn.
http://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10035.pdf

3. But, if you are younger than full retirement age and earn more than certain amounts, your benefits will be reduced. It is important to note, though, that these benefit reductions are not truly lost. Your benefit will be increased at your full retirement age to account for benefits withheld due to earlier earnings.

Eg: If you are younger than full retirement age during all of 2014, we must deduct $1 from your benefits for each $2 you earn above $15,480. Full examples at link below, showing how much your benefit would increase at full retirement based on SS withheld due to earnings over the limit.
http://www.socialsecurity.gov/pubs/EN-05-10069.pdf

My mom had another option. My father died in his 50s, but had worked for 35 years, so his SS was at its max. My mom retired at 63 also with over 35 years full employment. She choose to receive my father's SS as a spousal for 5 years until she turned 68, then switch to hers at a far higher payment. She did not lose 5 years of payment, instead her payment grew while she was collecting my father's. I do not know if this is still an option, but it was some time ago when she did it. The SS office recommended that she do this.