2. You Have a Shorter Life Expectancy

The government encourages delaying your Social Security benefits by increasing the monthly payments the longer you wait.

For instance, if you start claiming Social Security early, at age 62 more precisely, but your full retirement age is 66, then your monthly benefit will be around 75% of your full benefits. So if you’ve calculated that your monthly benefit will be $1,000 at age 66, you would only get about $750 at 62.

A larger monthly benefit definitely sounds great, but don’t forget that you won’t receive that extra $250 monthly until you reach your full retirement age, which in this scenario means waiting four years. Since you’d have a reduced amount of $750 monthly, you’d receive a $36,000 total amount during those four years.

And now let’s say you begin receiving an extra $250 per month which means you’ll get $1,000 at age 66. Well, you won’t be able to break even until after 12 years compared to claiming Social Security early. Of course, you can also try to find a health insurance program that offers maximum coverage, but will that be enough?

If you’re dealing with health problems and you don’t expect to reach the age of 78, you’ll earn more benefits during your lifetime if you decide to claim them as soon as possible.