I am 68 years old in July of this year. I am contemplating filing for retirement benefits at that time, and then reducing my hours working to quarter-time. Would it be best to wait and file until I am age 70, or would it be more beneficial continue working. I realize that if I continue working, in addition to collecting social security, my benefits will rise in the future if those wages are one of my highest 35. I want to know, if I do that, will my benefits rise enough to equal what I would collect if I wait until age 70 to file?

Hi. If you compare starting benefits at a certain age versus starting them sooner, it would generally take you about 12 years of collecting at the higher rate to make up for the total amount of benefits that you passed up by not starting your benefits sooner. However, that math doesn't factor in any additional benefit rate increases that would result from additional years of earnings.

That said, we do not recommend basing your filing decisions on break even analysis. To find out why, read the following article that Larry wrote for PBS: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/take-social-security-benefits-early....

Your best overall filing strategy depends on on numerous different factors that are unique to you. By using our software (https://maximizemysocialsecurity.com/purchase), you could fully compare and analyze all of your various options so that you can determine the filing strategy that you believe would be the most likely to maximize your benefits.

Best, Jerry