(cont from previous post)


In short, I don't think there is much risk in the government failing to fund Social Security when I'm ready to collect it. But I do think there is a reasonable risk of inflation and depressed stock returns going forward.

I've been running some retirement scenarios in Boldin and discovered some somewhat subtle benefits from delaying. These are likely not universal, but apply in my specific case. By "subtle" I mean not neccessarily obvious, but the impacts are big. One is that because of the guaranteed benefit increases, delaying SS acts as a backstop against sequence of returns risk early in the retirement period. This means delaying increases my SWR. Social Security of course, is adjusted for inflation. If you delay, that means more of your income is also adjusted for inflation. Delaying goes a long way to mitigate inflation risk. Another benefit is the Roth conversion window I mentioned in another post. The tax savings alone are enormous. In my case, the benefits are greatly in favor of delaying. Not close.