Calculating Spousal Social Security benefits

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

11. The break even point is a LOT earlier than age 84.

Don't know how you came up with that number, but most of the time it's age 78. And even that strikes me as suspect, as the yearly increase in SS, when it occurs, is a percentage, not a flat number. So the higher the base number you start with, the higher the increases are. I suspect that in about five years, taking SS later is far more advantageous than is generally understood.

More to the point, living a long time is far more realistic than most people understand. They look at expected life span from birth as being an absolute, but it's not. The longer you live, the longer you are likely to live. A man who today has just turned 65 will probably live to age 84. A 65 year old woman today will probably live to age 86. That's a decade beyond the "break-even" point for SS. Clearly, if no one in your family lives past age 70, or if you have some sort of a life-shortening condition, then taking SS early is a good idea. But for the average person, not so much.

I will again repeat that everyone I have personally known who took SS at age 62 expressed regret within a very few years, because the payout that seemed so appealing back then was now a whole lot less than they needed to live on.