The other thing to factor in is that "waiting until age 70 to collect SS" tends to be a privilege reserved for higher income Americans. Those in the top 10% of the income/wealth pyramid tend to live 5 or 6 years longer than the average SS beneficiary. There's a higher probability that you'll "beat the breakeven point".


Agreed.

But those in the top 10% of income/wealth don't particularly need to optimize their SS benefit. They can pat themselves on the back, but the extra money doesn't much matter.

FWIW, a quick google search came up with "May 25, 2024 — The top 10% of all American households had a net worth of at least $1.94 million."

and

"The top 10% of earners in the US have an average net worth of $2.65 million."

The sad thing is, the people who really need the extra money can't afford to wait until 70.
Whereas the people who can afford to wait until 70 don't really need the extra money.

It is very expensive to be poor.

equality-of-opportunity.org: The Equality of Opportunity Project
That shows Life Expectancy at age 40. Better would be LE at age 60 or 62.

Squinting at the chart, 50'th percentile has LE of age 82, and 90'th percentile at age 85. That's only 3 years, but estimating 5 or 6 years (to age 87) longer is reasonable.
The 62-70 break-even age at 0% return is age 80.5. 87 - 80.5 is only 6 1/2 years of receiving the higher SS benefit.

Each person will have to do their own assessment of whether it's worth it or not.

(If you get 6% return, the BE age is 97.6)

{insert emoji of beating a dead horse}