Social Security file and suspend

[Rapid Robert]

For me, it's not a question about a guaranteed return or maximizing the cash benefit I plan to receive. If I've got too much income in the later years and as a result I have to pay more tax I'm very happy with that outcome. I see social security as insurance rather than as an investment.

I agree completely. My whole point has been that "8% return on investment" grossly oversimplifies the factors involved, and obfuscates, as you indicate, that SS is insurance and always has been. Too many people do look at it as an investment ("I paid in my whole life...") and that causes lots of other problems, such as the headlines that scream "You are about to lose $50,000 in SS benefits", without even taking into account that single people aren't "losing" anything. I'm glad file-and-suspend loophole is now closed, and wish they would close some others too. I have a relative who got remarried late in life and had a kid, and now while he's still alive, his kid gets Soc. Sec. as minor even though the family is well-off. That is purely ridiculous.