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The week's question
In December 2024, in the thread "Re: BRK: Why Not XOM?", BreckHutHigh asked the members: "What about the long road trips with kids?" This week it is put to everyone again. The button below opens the small thread re-asking it - read what others have said so far, then give your own answer as an ordinary reply.
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Personal Finance / Retirement Investing
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Author: intercst ⎊  😊 😞
Number: of 1281 
Subject: Re: What's worse than lottery tickets?
Date: 11/15/24 5:47 AM
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No. of Recommendations: 8
<<The SSA is an insurance company. They have a pretty good idea of what the average age at death is and have set up the payments so that somewhere around age 80 is breakeven. >>

That's correct. The SSA has an excellent idea of the average longevity of SS beneficiaries, sick and healthy. But SSA makes no adjustment in the rate if one of the healthy ones decides to "buy" a larger annuity by waiting until age 70

Commercial insurance companies factor in "adverse selection" into the premiums they charge for life annuities. SSA does not. That's one of the reasons waiting until age 70 effectively allows you to "buy" a life annuity at a big discount to what a commercial insurer would charge for the same increase in monthly benefits.

intercst
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This community has written 1,207 posts about Retirement Investing. The article-length ones it recommended most:
The Case for Long-Term Buy and Hold Investing · 49 recs · 2025
Transferring assets to the next generation · 20 recs · 2025
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(nearly) year one of retirement has been good · 11 recs · 2026
Buying Treasuries Via Vanguard · 10 recs · 2023
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