Is it wise to collect Social Security at 62 or wait till 66 or even 70? It depends...

You probably read many articles like this one

At your full retirement age
which may be between 66 and 70 depending for people born between 1940 and later let us say you collect $1000 per month.

Here's how it works if your full retirement age is 67.

• If you start your retirement benefits at age 62, your monthly benefit amount is reduced by about 30 percent. The reduction for starting benefits at age
  
  • 63 is about 25 percent;
  • 64 is about 20 percent;
  • 65 is about 13.3 percent; and
  • 66 is about 6.7 percent
  So, most financial planners and social security administration encourage you to wait till 67 or even 70 to collect the $1000.
  I think It may be wise to use your 401k money first and delay collecting social security if you are financially able to do so. So, is it a clear cut decision to delay? It depends on how you invest the money. Let us say you collected $700 a month at 62 an invested in stock market with a historical return of 7.67% for S & P 500 Index. Let us say you get only 4% on the average. When you are 70, you would have $73k after tax. Now you can invest $73k at the age of 70 and get 4%, you get about $240 a month. On top of it you get $700 from social security total slightly under $1000 Vs $1320 a month from social security if you waited till 70 to collect. So, why not wait? Return in stock market is not guaranteed but social security is (at least that is what they say). However if you waited till 70 to collect and you suddenly had health issues and you die at 81, it is a wash. If you live well past 81 then you may come out ahead by waiting. However, do you want to take risk and hope that there will be no more changes in social security? Jury is out on that. Of course, you could have invested in a high flying stock and made a ton of money or gone to Las Vegas and lost it all...
  
  
  However, if you have poor health and financially tight, absolutely not a good idea to wait.
  
  If you are young and in good health and not contributing maximum to 401k and eating out and lot, travel a lot, indulging your kids a lot, buying fancy cars, buying new gadgets and clothes a lot, renting for ever and not getting on the real estate band wagon (if you live in an area where real estate is going up) and living in the moment, you may really regret it when you cross 40 and get laid off... At 50 it gets worse and social security expects you to have a job till 70?
  
  If you were a foreign national who became a US resident or citizen and you are thinking of retiring outside US, be aware that you get no medicare outside US and medical costs and inflation is much higher than you remember. It may not be practical. Besides, you may have kids who are US citizens and of course they live in the US. As you get older, you cannot expect kids to take time away from work and fly at great expense to take care of your health and finances in a foreign country. Your siblings in the foreign country are getting older too. Do you think their kids will take care of you as well as their parents?
  
  I hope I gave you food for thought.