Planning to Take Social Security at 70? You May Want to Rethink That for This Reason

When it comes to signing up for Social Security, you get a pretty wide range of ages to choose from. It’s important to land on the right filing age, since it will help determine how much money the program pays you each month.

The earliest age to sign up for Social Security is 62. You’re eligible for your monthly benefits without a reduction at full retirement age, which is 67 if you were born any year after 1959.

But there’s also the option to delay your Social Security claim past full retirement age. For each year you hold off, until age 70, your benefits get an 8% boost.

Once you turn 70, your Social Security benefits can’t grow any more. For this reason, 70 is generally referred to as the latest age to claim Social Security, even though you can sign up after that point.

You may be thinking of taking Social Security at 70 to score boosted benefits for life. But before you do, consider what you may have to give up.

You may not want to miss out on those early retirement years

If you have a large amount of retirement savings, it may be possible to retire in your mid-60s, or around full retirement age, and live off your nest egg until 70. That could allow you to retire on time while delaying your Social Security claim until your 70th birthday for boosted monthly checks.

If you don’t have a particularly robust IRA or 401(k), though, then you may not feel comfortable retiring and living off savings for a few years. In that situation, your only path to delaying Social Security until age 70 may be to work until 70.

If you love your job and are conflicted about retiring, that may not be such a bad thing. But you should know that forcing yourself to work until 70 could mean missing out on a few key years of good health. That’s time you can’t get back.

Let’s say your goal for your first few years of retirement is to do a lot of travel. If your health is great at 67, but you work three more years to push your Social Security claim out until age 70, you may find that you’re not in the same physical shape by the time you stop working. That could mean missing out on certain experiences that require a specific level of fitness you may no longer have.

A decision to weigh carefully

Of course, the flipside of working longer to delay Social Security is the added financial stability. Not only can larger monthly checks give you a solid financial cushion in retirement, but working a few extra years allows you to boost your IRA or 401(k). It also allows you to leave your existing savings untouched a bit longer.

But before you assume that it makes sense to work until age 70 to delay Social Security, think about what you might be giving up. Also, consider the toll a few extra years in the workforce might have on your health.

Waiting until 70 to claim Social Security could do your retirement finances a world of good. But if you don’t desperately need a boost to your monthly benefits, you may want to consider claiming them a bit earlier if that allows you to exit the workforce on your preferred timeline.

It’s one thing to insist on delaying benefits if you have almost no savings. If you have a decent-sized nest egg, you may be just fine claiming Social Security at or around full retirement age and ending your career when you want to.