4. You Can’t Work Anymore

Having a retirement plan doesn’t always mean that everything will go exactly as you planned. Let’s say you’ve decided to work until you’re 70 in order to maximize your retirement benefits. If you’ve lost your job due to reasons beyond your control, and now you can’t find another job, you may need to start claiming Social Security early so you can get by.

Of course, if you’ve had (or still have) health or life insurance, it will continue to offer benefits beyond the retirement age – but that’s far from enough.

On top of that, working in your industry after reaching full retirement age may not be viable or healthy for you. If your job tasks require manual labor, you may reach the conclusion that the risk of any damage to your health is not worth continuing to work. In this situation, the healthier lifestyle that comes with retiring early may exceed the lower monthly Social Security benefit.