3 Reasons It's Dumb to Take Social Security Benefits at 62

The decision to claim Social Security benefits isn't an easy one, especially since the Social Security Administration (SSA) effectively gives you an eight-year window for signing up. The earliest age you can file for benefits is 62, while there are financial incentives to hold off on claiming until 70. And to be clear, you're technically not forced to file at 70, but there's no reason to delay past that point.

In the middle of that eight-year period is your full retirement age, or FRA. That's the age at which you get to collect your full monthly Social Security benefit based on your earnings history. FRA is either 66, 67, or somewhere in between, depending on your year of birth.

Because 62 is the earliest option for claiming benefits, it happens to be an extremely popular one. But here are three reasons filing at that age is an exceptionally bad idea.

Source Fool.com