I am done at the end of this year. 36 in law enforcement, with two terms as Sheriff. The last few years have been the worst, with all the stuff going on.
I will just turn 63, and plan to draw immediately. The difference in waiting to FRA is a hundred thousand dollars in my pocket when the FRA day arrives. Do i want a few more bucks then, or do i want a few less bucks, but 100k in hand.?

If i dont make it to FRA that money is gone. In my view the only person who should hold out are those who will need as much as possible to keep them in dog food and government cheese.

The SS i draw will work for me, and also help with not needing to withdraw from my IRA. Collect early, collect late; it’s the same amount around age 81. One finance guy showed that post 81, is when more money is doled out after then, for those who gambled and waited.

Just as with my DROP option, versus getting a few more bucks monthly- The nest egg i get at the end of the year would take twenty five years to catch up to. That doesnt count the investment return, so it could be the extra money may never catch up. Same with SS. Save that money as it comes in early, the larger amount drawn may never match up.

Everyone has different needs. Sadly the less a person needs the income to get by, more choices they have.

Congratulations on escaping the world of Law Enforcement. It has turned to crappola and I cannot wait to escape. Beyond thankless. No winning. I'll leave it at that.

I was a n
Navy corpsman 4yrs active the rest was being a nurse for the veterans administration too much stress,my hands now shake,I've got alot of anxiety,have hi bp,had a stroke.My wife's a angel took care of me and my medical problems,between my government retirement, and va benefits they help but I'm still working at Napa part time and that's OK I love cars!lol!

I've thought about auto parts store part time if I need to work after retirement. Being around car parts would feed my car fanatic hunger a little bit Also thought it might be cool to drive dealership shuttle van.

I've got 6 weeks left to work until I put Johnny Paycheck on my outgoing message on my work phone and start the vacation countdown to retirement! I'm 65 already by a few months and my full benefit for SS is 66 and 6 months. At this point, I'll wait for that even though it's only like $80 a month more. My wife is already taking SS and I will just live off my stock dividends until I start SS. Working for the power company for 44 years is long enough. I enjoyed every day of being a lineman for the first 28 years and loved my job as an inspector UNTIL Dook Energy bought our company out in 2012. Dook could screw up a 1 car funeral. I will miss my friends at work, but I've got plenty of work to do out in the garage 40' behind the house...lol. I'm sure looking forward to it!

“Buck” Duke loved the electricity business even more than tobacco, aluminum or Universities.
He put his cousins the Lees in charge of his electricity company and they ran it pretty well for many years.

Starting with Kentucky born CEO Jim Rodgers it truly has gone far downhill and deserves the Dook rename.

Bill Lee in particular did the world’s best job of building and staffing Nuclear Power plants.

Now I would not be surprised to hear on the news that a Dook Nuc plant has had a serious accident.

The few people from legacy Dook who aren't too good to talk to us say that Bill Lee was awesome. Bill Johnson was the same way, but Jim Rogers and the board conspired against him before the merger. Johnson was to be the new CEO of the company after the merger, but he only made it about 20 minutes before the board voted him out and reinstated Rogers. The NC Utilities Commision came within a gnats ass of undoing the merger unless Rogers stepped down. They named Lynn Good as CEO, then Rogers stepped down and supposedly went to Africa to help some pigmy tribe set up an electrical system. Mr.'s. Good has done a decent job, but there's too many idiots between her and those of us out being the face of the company.
Bill Johnson moved on to be CEO of the TVA for several years, then got recruited to be CEO of PG&E long enough to see them thru bankruptcy over the forest fire stuff. Bill is one of those bosses who made you feel like you worked with him, not for him! He's kicked back taking it easy now. Enough hijacking.....lets get back to retiring!

I'm one year away from 62 and I'm calling it quits at that point. My medical is covered by the VA and I get a pretty good check from them for a 70% disability rating. With the SS I will get at 62 plus the VA I can cover all my expenses and then some. That completely leaves out my 401 K from the equation which isn't a lot in the grand scheme of things. I can work when and if I want to make a few more bucks so I see no point in working until I'm almost dead.

I like reading what others are doing/planning/thinking/experiencing for financing their retirements. Like someone else said, its easy, you just need to know when your going to die.

I don't think anyone said it, but one of the reasons I'm contemplating the wait until I'm 70 is to maximize my wife's benefit when I'm gone. There is a fair chance that she'll be around for another 35 years after we retire.

SS is a government program, to be able to receive any of it, the government has to keep meeting the obligation, regardless of how it was funded. Without getting political, that option seems to be loosing ground pretty fast.

Its no longer a game of one simple question, 3 questions will need to be considered.

The 1st question is: When will I die?
The 2nd question is: How long will the government continue to meet the obligation it committed to back in the 1930s?
The 3rd question is: Will they change the rules to receive payment that may eliminate or greatly reduce what they will pay out to me?

The 1st obviously we don't know Do we want to? .

The 2nd I think the government will meet it long enough for everyone here and we'll be grandfathered in for changes in age requirement (or most of us)

The 3rd I think you're right and we will be seeing reductions