I don't know why but from an early age retirement and benefits have been very important to me. Neither of my parents or any of the adults I grew up around claim to have been the source, although both my parents had state jobs with good benefits and retirement as did many of their friends. Since nobody has taken credit for this drive to retire well, I guess I'll just put it down to I don't like working.
That can't be it, because if that was true then I've made a mess of it by working a lot. Even in retirement I keep going back to work, what an idiot.
Like you I also started putting money away from the start of my career, 10% at first, then 15% and the last few years I was doing 20%. I discovered that this actually has two benefits, one of which I've never heard mentioned. The obvious is you have a sack full of money for retirement. The second, is you have been living that far under your salary, which brings you closer to your post-retirement income. The last 5 years or so I was only living on 80% of my pre-tax salary, and our youngest son was only a few years old, so my wife wasn't working for much of that time. Admittedly money was pretty tight there for a bit, but we are frugal by nature.
Take away all the SSDI, retirement contributions and other deductions that they don't take out of retirement income, and add in the hidden costs of working like driving 50 miles a day and I found I wasn't actually bringing home much less than when I was working. We have a 6 year old so with me home my wife was able to go from part time to full time at the hospital. We are actually doing better financially since I retired than almost any other time since we've been married (21 years at the end of the month).
Retirement does not suck, I just wish I could find more time to enjoy it. My supposed to be part time retirement gig supporting fires has kicked my butt this year, I just added up my hours and I've worked just short of 1000 hours in 115 days. I'm supposed to be free after this weekend, come on rain!
You are describing the never ending debate over take SS as early as possible or wait for the maximum benefit. The pro side is, that is money you get that will take years to catch up and money you get if you die before reaching the next break point. In my case full retirement age is 67, so I can get five years at 70% vs waiting until I'm 67 for 100%. If I wait until I'm 70 I can get 124%.
I have always been taught to take the money and run with it, unless you need the higher monthly benefit to live on (in which case something probably went wrong in your retirement plans). Working between 62 and your full retirement age does have some impact on the decision due to annual earning limitations. Having a spouse with a limited work history, a much younger spouse or young dependent children in the house is also something to consider, as their survivor benefits will be impacted by when you start your benefit. It doesn't sound like any of those are a factor for you.
It is something of an academic problem for me. I have a firefighter retirement, and they like to get us out fairly young so they don't end up paying line of duty death benefits (job related medical deaths have a sharp increase after age 50, and go vertical after 60). Part of my retirement is an offset equal to 50% of my SS benefit @ 62. At 62 this supplement goes away so I either find another source of income (work
) or start drawing SS at that time. I also got to keep my medical into retirement, so medicare is also not a factor for me.