Taking SS early (62)

[SDHNTR]

Swing...miss! LOL You're watching the wrong YouTube "guru".

Taxes bite hard — especially on SS and investment income

Social Security benefits are up to 85% taxable once combined income exceeds ~$44K (married).

Add capital-gains/dividend taxes, and your real “5–6% target” quickly shrinks:

6% gross return

− 15% capital-gains/dividend tax → ≈5.1%

− 3% inflation (average 2010-2024) → ≈2.1% real

And that’s before state taxes or any advisor fees.
So your so-called “easy 5–6%” becomes 2–3% real after-tax, best-case.

Delaying SS is like buying an inflation-proof, risk-free, 8% bond backed by the U.S. government — no market crash can touch it.

please, no more facts!

 

[Mule3006Elk]

Somewhat related. < 5%, per mult online resources, have retirement savings with more than 1 million. Not total assets. For those of you in the know professionally is this stat fairly accurate?

 

[mtwarden]

How about you guys start your own teacher thread and get back to SS at 62…

Mule3006 everything I’ve seen about taking early is you break even 75-77 or so. I really don’t care if I’m theoretically losing money when I’m 77. I’m going to get what I want done before then-all that money will be for is scumbags trying to take it away from me by “treating” my ailments.

Message sent to offending party—could have deleted post, but would have had to deleted several other who quoted it and replied