Subject: Re: taking SS early
Bird in the hand. Right.
That means to take the sure thing you can have NOW, instead of hoping & planning that you can get more later. (Lord willing and the creek don't rise.)

Spend down your barely adequate retirement account* for 8 years, planning on the headed-for-bankruptcy Social Security will pay you more later on.

Ignore the bit about that the difference in payments is designed to be actuarially neutral.

While you're at it, ignore the time value of money.

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* If it is more than adequate, you have little need for SS checks in the first place. You laugh in the face of "poor sequence of returns risk."
If it is less than adequate, you don't have the option to defer. You NEED the SS checks as soon as you retire.

</soapbox>