I was self employed, my wife had a State job that had great health insurance. Her insurance covered me. We were 100% debt free and had some other retirement savings set aside. My wife has a few health issues, I'm pretty healthy. She is about a year and 9 months older then I am.

My wife reached being fully vested (15 years of service) in the State's retirement fund when she was 63, the next step up in retirement funding would have required she worked another 5 years. Her state pension covered the insurance for both of us until we each reached the Medicare age of 65, then her insurance automatically cut back to a supplement level (which wasn't very good). Her work pension still covers the Medicare costs, the advantage plans for both of us, and both of our prescription deductibles and co=pay costs. Once she reached that fully vested retirement from the state, she was ready to retire.

The last few years before I retired (2018) my business was slowing down, our little town had taken a beating from the recession of 2008 and never fully recovered. Once I took the shop expenses out of my gross income, the age 63 SS check was about the same size. That was about the same time the government was changing the deductions a small shop could take. The "Why am I working?" light started flashing. About that time I experienced a couple bouts of occupation related minor health scares that I took as warning signs.

I also did the math. The break even point on retiring early, or waiting until full retirement for me was 19 years, age 81. Most of the men in my family didn't make it that far. Then if we add in the concept they are telling us the SS system will go broke before I reach 82, my decision was pretty easy. I was collecting the SS check when covid hit. I sure was happy to see that deposit in my checking account every month. I doubt I would have made it through that mess without that SS check.