Subject: Re: taking SS early
There are a bunch of calculators out there. My two favorites were the Fido one (my 401K was with them while I was working), and FIRECALC.com. You input your details (assets, projected SS payouts -which are available at ssa.gov-, projected expenses, etc), and they pretty much tell you if you can retire now. I even ran the calcs assuming that SS was killed, just to be hyper-conservative. Our numbers still came out favorably, so we retired.

I agree that you shouldn't wait to open the "floodgates". But that's me. Everyone has to decide for themselves. We wanted to enjoy retirement while we could, because eventually we wouldn't be able to any longer. Your health will be fine until it isn't, and then it's too late. For us, we didn't want to wait until "someday". 1poormom waited until "someday", and then her best friend died, and she descended into dementia (of which we had no family history). Her retirement wasn't what she had wanted; she did basically nothing. I turned 61 this year. We've done a good amount of traveling the last two years, and will continue to do so until we aren't able anymore. Wish I had retired sooner.

Courtesy of our investments, we're actually worth more now than two years ago. At some point in your investing life, that likely will happen. You're drawing down 4% (for example), but maybe getting returns of 10%. As another poster likes to say, the worst approach is earning a W2 income. The system advantages investors over earners. He retired at 38. If you can retire at 50, I'm envious. I would have done it.

Life is too short, and you don't really know how long you have. Enjoy it while you can.