Retirement age

1. You have no retirement savings, so work until age 70 and start benefits then

2. You are the higher earning spouse

3. You're in good health and plan to live long

4. You're wealthy and generating sufficient income

Personal finance adviser Suze Orman says seniors should not start drawing Social Security retirement benefits until age 70.

Main reason is that your annual benefit at age 70 will be 76 percent higher than what you're eligible for at 62.

Excerpt :

Recently, the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released a "warning" against using a reverse mortgage to delay initiation of Social Security retirement benefits.

This opinion piece says that the CFPB used flawed analysis.

Excerpt :

According to May, 2017 survey, only 28 percent of 61-year-old respondents said they would receive Social Security retirement benefits as soon as possible (age 62).

This is a big decline from 2008, when 45 percent of 61-year-olds said they would file as soon as possible.

There are probably two reasons for this.

One, in 2008, many seniors could not find worthwhile employment, so getting Social Security was perhaps the only option.

MATH translates to :

* Market
* Affordability
* Taxes
* Health

Health -> Take Social Security early if your life expectancy is limited

Affordability -> If you NEED the money now, maybe you need to start benefits

Taxes -> If you're still working, your up to 85 percent of your Social Security benefits may be taxed

Market -> If the stock market is way down, maybe you need to start benefits soon

Lately, some financial advisers have suggested that seniors delay taking Social Security retirement benefits. Instead of taking Social Security at age 62, for example, these advisers suggest using a reverse mortgage to "fund" your retirement and delay initiation of Social Security benefits until later. Delaying benefit initiation means a larger retirement benefit.

However, the US Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB) has cautioned that this strategy has drawbacks. The CFPB says the best way to increase future benefits is to keep working past age 62, if possible.

According to an example in this article, someone with a large IRA is better off claiming Social Security on time ("early"), rather than deferring Social Security benefits and withdrawing from their IRA.