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AUTHOR: R Quinn on 7/23/2025
It’s been mentioned on HD many times. I even asked Gemini what was most important, monthly income or total lifetime benefits.
Apparently Pipers calculator uses accumulated lifetime benefit as a decision guide.
My monthly pension is most important. I care less what the accumulated lifetime amount may be – unless I can become a significant actuarial loss in good health, but it’s financially irrelevant. The fact my pension and SS are both lifetime benefits is important, but that is not the question
The Gemini answer was lifetime benefits are most important for the following reasons which to me have nothing to do with the question. Doesn’t this answer support the idea that monthly income amount is most important?
Why Total Lifetime Benefits are More Important:
- Longevity Risk: The biggest fear in retirement is running out of money. Social Security provides a guaranteed, inflation-adjusted income stream for the rest of your life. If you live a long life (which is increasingly common), a higher monthly benefit that lasts for more years will result in a significantly larger total amount collected.
- Inflation Protection: Social Security benefits receive Cost-of-Living Adjustments (COLAs). A higher starting monthly benefit means your COLAs will be applied to a larger base, leading to even more significant increases in dollar terms over time, further boosting your total lifetime income.
- Spousal and Survivor Benefits: Your claiming decision can impact the benefits of your spouse and/or survivors. If you are the higher earner, delaying your own benefit can mean a substantially larger survivor benefit for your spouse if you pass away first. This contributes to the household’s total lifetime benefits.
- Irreversibility (Mostly): While there are some limited circumstances where you can change your claiming decision (like withdrawing an application within 12 months), generally, once you start collecting, that decision largely locks in your benefit amount for life. You can’t easily go back and “undo” claiming early to get a higher future monthly payment.
QUINNSCOMMENTARY 
You ask: “Why is the total lifetime accumulated Social Security benefit more important than the monthly amount?”
It isn’t MORE important. They are equally important.
The only reason optimizing the present value of your Social Security benefit is equally important, is because, even where you optimize the Social Security benefit, your monthly, guaranteed, inflation-indexed SS benefit amount is almost always less than your regular, monthly expenses in retirement.
It depends on your personal situation.
Two answers:
First, if it has been more than a year since you commenced, don’t worry about it because it is too late to change.
Second, otherwise, here’s the answer…
If employment stops prematurely before your optimization date, if you have no other alternative nor sufficient assets, and if you can’t secure employment, it is time to commence SS. When you stop employment, if you need the money and have no other source of retirement income, it is time to claim.
Otherwise, it makes sense to maximize your guaranteed, inflation-indexed income in retirement, for yourself, and, because of the Social Security spousal benefits, for yourself and your spouse. Here’s how you might proceed:
Start by conservatively estimating your longevity, not your life expectancy, but the latest date you expect to live. Be conservative. Then, use a SS calculator to determine the commencement date where you optimize the present value of your Social Security benefit – not your lifetime accumulated Social Security benefit. If you are single, the commencement date will most likely be a date after your Social Security Full Retirement Age – only those in poor health are likely to maximize the value of their Social Security benefits by commencing prior to their Social Security Full Retirement Age. If you are married, it will likely be a different date than the one you calculated for yourself unless your spouse has the same date of birth.
Next, you should consider working at least until that SS commencement date identified above. Why? Simply, most Americans understate their need for guaranteed, inflation-indexed income in retirement. And, most Americans understate their longevity – understating the number of years they will live in retirement.
Next, if you want to retire prior to that optimal SS commencement date, you should have sufficient assets/benefits in order to bridge your income, so you can delay commencement until the optimal date.
Note: This is important because, you might actually live much longer than you expect.
Finally, if your regular, anticipated monthly expenses still exceed the guaranteed, inflation-indexed retirement benefit from Social Security at the optimal commencement date, before you consider a commercial annuity purchase, you should consider further delaying Social Security, even up to age 70.
Most Americans can’t afford to claim SS benefit suboptimally. If you can, and if you want to, have at it.
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Dick, My father lived 6 months on retirement before passing. My father-in-law and later a brother-in-law both died before collecting. I damn near died after just beginning to collect my ss. Several friends met the same fate. Do you wait hoping to get a higher monthly payment or decide to collect early.
I retired at age 60 and consider myself blessed to have made it to age 83. Make a positive difference in someone’s life today. Bill Mitchell
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