HomeFinanceRe: Am I crazy to file for Social Security at 62?

Re: Am I crazy to file for Social Security at 62?


anonyx wrote: Sat Aug 30, 2025 1:30 am

grabiner. Thank you. I didn’t realize that Open Social Security calculates the time value of money. I thought it just factored in one’s likelihood of being alive to collect SS at each point in time.

EnjoyIt. I’m sure I would be investing SOME of the SS benefits.

Thank you, I had been looking for stories about people who had filed early and regretted it, but all I’ve been seeing from people who filed at 62 is that they haven’t regretted it. It’s possible that they’re all simply still too young to regret it yet.

TN_Boy. Regarding I-Bonds: I think they’d make no sense to anyone who isn’t risk intolerant to the point of paranoia, as I am. Back when I was advised by a very knowledgeable person that I-bonds were “still a pretty good deal,” the Fixed Rate was 2.0, which was the rate I initially got.

Even as the Fixed Rate gradually decreased, I continued to unenthusiastically buy them, but only after maxing my Roth IRA contributions each year. After maxing the IRA contributions, I was looking for some other “principal-protected” investments with some tax benefit. The I-bonds aren’t tax-free, but they do have some tax advantages: They aren’t state or local taxed, and the federal tax can be deferred until the bond is redeemed. I liked the fact that the I-bonds were uncomplicated (I read somewhere that you shouldn’t invest in things you don’t understand), and that I could buy them and let them sit for up to 30 years without worrying about them, and liquidate them as needed, instead of waiting for them to mature.

IF inflation went berserk, the I-bonds would out-earn CDs. At times, my 2.0 Fixed Rate I-bonds were earning something like 4.89% plus the taxes benefits, which isn’t terrible for a principle-protected investment, while CDs were earning a lot less, but of course that was relatively rare.

Given 20/20 hindsight, I’d put that money in whatever made the most money during that time. Without 20/20 hindsight, and not having time on my side with regard to retirement date, if I had an extra $10K at this moment in time, I’d still sleep better at night putting it in an I-bond than in stocks. But as my net worth increases and I can actually afford to lose some money in a market downturn, I would be more inclined to invest in stocks.

I do have the worst timing possible, by the way. The two times I got my feet wet in the stock market were immediately before the Great Recession, and immediately before the Pandemic. Both times, I got to see my savings plummet like a rock. I didn’t panic and sell at a loss, but I sure didn’t enjoy the experience. Perhaps you all should be glad that I haven’t put all my savings into stocks, because with my luck, I would probably cause a major Depression.

So some of your i-bonds are 2%, but I gather a lot of them are less than 2% or well less. They are sound investments.

You must have sold equity sometime after the pandemic then? My thinking is that if you’d stuck over the years with a very conservative 20/80 or 25/75 stocks/fixed income you’d have found that combination the same or less volatile than what you have now*, and in the years between the GFC and pandemic, and since 2022, you’d have been really happy you owned those stocks.

A modest dose of stocks is safer than all fixed income (in my belief and I think that’s pretty close to a consensus). I.e. lower risk. Or rather, the *portfolio* is safer over a long period of time. It’s okay to dislike high equity portfolios — they can be quite volatile — but zero equity has its own set of risks. The key thing is finding a reasonable asset allocation you can stick with.

* You may not be marking your CDs to market, like a bond fund NAV, but if you bought them before 2022, they are worth less than face value if you sell them before maturity (as interest rates have increased). I don’t know what percent of your savings you had in stocks when “my savings plummet like a rock” but with a conservative allocation to stocks, your overall portfolio doesn’t plummet in a crash. 2022 was a tough year for both stocks and bonds (historically bad for bonds) but since then, equity has been strong. I mean, if you are 20% stocks and stocks go to zero (which would mean, basically the US economy has collapsed, in which case no investment is going to bail you out) you’ve only lost 20% of your savings.

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