I was talking to a client last week that was asking both his financial advisor and myself, when to start taking his Social Security.
Lets take a step back and look at Social Security from a historical perspective. When FDR was president and he started implementing New Deal policies, the world was suffering from the Great Depression. One policy was Social Security to those that turned 65 would be allowed to collect a government pension. The great joke of this was that life expectancy was 63. Getting Social Security at age 65 was like winning the lottery. Congratulations you won, now please go over to the corner with your check and die quickly and quietly.
No one was actually ever to collect, let alone collect for 20 plus years. This was not part of the original plan.
Johnson added to the plan (or problem) with survivorship benefits and disability as part of the Great Society of the 1960’s. When he was negotiating this policy he made sure the projections did not go to far out in the future because the numbers would scare everyone, Democrats and Republicans alike.
So my response to my client and to everyone who can, grab the money as fast as you can. What Congress will probably do is freeze payments to those already getting benefits and lower the amount and push back the time frame for others to collect much later. That is if Congress every deals with the issue.
Personally I liked the idea of private accounts, I think I can look after my money better than the government can in my opinion. They disagree, I sure hope I get my fair share back of what has been kicked in for me since age 16…