Retirement Uncertainties: Why Financial Planning is Necessary > Issue 4 > When Should Someone Start Taking Social Security?

There is an abundance of online advice on this topic.  For every year beyond your full retirement age you delay taking social security benefits, those benefits go up 8%.  As a result, many Internet experts say that’s the way to go, as you can’t guarantee getting 8% increases on your investments in any given year so you might as well take advantage of a guaranteed 8% increase in your benefit.  Likewise, because you receive permanently reduced benefits by taking Social Security before your full retirement age, many Internet experts also caution about that strategy.  Well. . .  it’s just not that simple.  Financial need, health concerns, the state of the Social Security system, income tax rates, and many other variables that constitute your situation are too complex to solve with the cookie cutter approach “wait as long as possible, never take early”.  The full discussion on this topic is beyond this piece, but when it comes time to decide when to take your social security benefits, you should ask the help of your Cadence Wealth advisor, and we even suggest game planning that scenario in the years before you retire.  We would highly advise against using Internet-provided rules of thumb to help you decide when to start receiving your benefits.