Many people who are at or near retirement age are wondering whether they should begin claiming their Social Security benefits at age 62 or whether they should wait until they are 66 years old. Waiting it out seems like a good idea because you get bigger checks. However, there are times when it makes more sense to begin collecting your benefits ass soon as you are able to.
One major factor in deciding whether or not to wait is your health. Of course, it can be difficult to admit if your health is beginning to decline. Even though your benefit checks will be smaller than if you wait four more years to begin claiming them, the effect on your health of collecting benefits now can be quite significant. If you begin to collect Social Security, you can work less than you did before and have more time to take care of your health and rest when you need it. In fact, if you do begin to collect Social Security at 62, there is a built in incentive to cut back on your working hours because you begin to lose benefit money if you make more than a certain amount of money from working.
If you are in excellent health and you would like to wait a few more years, you will get more money in each of your benefit checks. Also, if you are married, there are provisions in the Social Security program that can enable you and your spouse to leave one of your benefits alone for a while so that it grows even larger before you begin to draw on it. Social Security is not always the easiest thing to understand, so be sure that you do your research before deciding what the right thing is for you to do given your circumstances. There is a lot of information out there that you can read to help you understand Social Security and the impact of your choices. You can also call the Social Security Administration for information and assistance.
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