FRA
Blackrock Floating Rate Income Strategies Fund, Inc.
stock NYSE Closed Ended Fund

66 next week, still work, plan to retire @ 68 & 5 months. Want to work 1 yr without earnings penalty from SS, FRA 67. Have about 6% of portfolio invested in QQQI, SPYI, QDVO, GPIQ. I add significantly to this basket which pays me about $2,200 mo. But, I add more aggressively to my core holdings of the basics: mutual funds & ETFs, a few from Fidelity & Vanguard, Schwab, T Rowe Price…primarily VOO, VOOG, FSPTX, FXIAX, SCHG… Heavy on tech, S&P 500, banking. Old, very old. Also hold other SPACS, LPs, midstream pipeline companies such as MPLX, ET, ENB. Many other names too… O, JEPQ, BST, UTG, the dog PFE, BTI, MO, CGC (loser), STK, AGNC…
Most are winners and powerful dividend payers. Some are duds.
And lots of SPCX, META, AAPL, NVDA just for fun.
But, the best way to win: skip all this crap and add to your core holdings now & forever. The broad based, not too eccentric, S&P and Technology Funds are guaranteed intermediate & long term winners. They are also short term winners about 70% of the time. I feel like I’m too old to untangle the mess I made without significant tax consequence, but the bulk of new money, expected to continue forever, is invested in core ETF holdings, ROTHED to the max, but outside retirement accounts too. Some is peeled away for fun. We are all at the mercy of America in that risk assets could enter a prolonged period of downward repricing if the perception becomes the rapid decline of capitalism resulting from recent election results. Or, God forbid, if the investing community is convinced we are headed toward adoption of European economic and societal models. Then we’re truly doomed. If they kill the goose, real or imagined, our assets go with it.
There’s nowhere to hide if you have any money at all.

What will your social security benefit be at 62? At FRA?
Will any or all of your pension go to your spouse if/when you die?
You may want to delay social security so that she receives your full benefit if you die, since I’m guessing her benefit will be lower.

You may be fine, but can you meet together with someone who charges a flat-fee to run scenarios?
A big concern is she has 16 years of health insurance (plus your 6 years) to pay for, that requires some math (at 60, it’s currently like $1400/months for one person for a basic plan). But also there’s just personal fulfillment through employment, independence, plus the social side of it, and she’s had ten fewer years to grow her own retirement account, she’d be reliant on your income and pension stability (which may be worrying to her).
Does her job offer healthcare coverage? Maybe you retire ahead of her? Maybe she works and puts all her income into her retirement plan for a few more years?
The pension is great, though. You’d surely want to choose a 100% joint and survivor benefit, due to the age difference, so spouse can maintain income. Does it have COL increases? So you need to run scenario numbers using the specific pension choices and healthcare.
And be aware of how your age claiming social security (given the age difference) will impact benefits. Your taking SS early impacts her potential widow survivor benefits. If you wait until FRA, and you pass away, she can get full benefit of your PIA once she’s over 60; if you claim early, her benefit is [reduced](https://ssa.tools/guides/survivor-benefits). There’s no real benefit to her as a survivor if you go beyond FRA, but that increases your joint income while you’re alive.
Note on life expectancy: it increases the longer you survive (male at age 60 LE is 22 more years, female 25 years; at 70, male is 15 more and female is 17 more). So you say enough for 20-30 years, but you need to think longer. At 50, she could still live 40 more years. And longterm care like assisted living on up to nursing can run $6k/mo (basic AL, little assistance) to $25k/mo (high level memory care), so $72k/yr to $300k/yr.

Cystem\_Phailure, SPIAs are an excellent strategy if one does not have a monthly pension. In my opinion, one may use their SPIA allocation as part of their Fixed Income Allocation strategy. Some folks also count SS Benefits as part of their Fixed Income Allocation. However, SS Benefits are social insurance benefits that may be increased, decreased, changed, and even terminated. FYI, the Supreme Court ruled in 1960 that we do not have any contractual rights to SS benefits.
One may consider SS Benefits as a source of income to meet their Basic Expenses, but they are not part of one's Fixed Income Allocation. In fact, one does not need to retire (stop working) to receive SS Benefits. For most folks, eligibility is based on attaining Old Age (OA) which is age 62. The SS program is referred to as OASDI which means Old Age, Survivor, and Disability Income. Essentially, the SS program addresses three (3) types of insurance coverage; namely old age, death, and disability. The SS program provides benefits that are considered fair and actuarially equivalent. So, starting SS Benefits before Full Retirement Age (FRA), is not a loss as many folks believe, but may be a financially sound decision depending on life expectancy (time) and one's discount rate (time value of money).
The current quote for the SPIA is attractive. It is an 8.3% payout percentage guaranteed for life. Some folks confuse payout percentages with rates of return. They are not the same. Based on the exclusion ratio you provided (37% taxable and 63% return of premium), the insurance company is using approximately 18.5 years on average for your remaining life expectancy. For comparison, the Actuarial Life Table (ALT) at the SSA website currently indicates approximately 17 years on average for the remaining life expectancy for a Male age 66.
If you live another 18.5 years, the rate of return for the SPIA is approximately 5.1% over those 18.5 years. If you live longer than 18.5 years, the rate of return for the SPIA will increase. On the other hand, if you live less than 18.5 years, the rate of return for the SPIA will decrease. So, buying the SPIA transfer risk to the insurance company, provides lifetime guaranteed monthly benefits without equity market risks and income certainty at a reasonable rate of return with no financial monitoring. Be aware that State Guarantee Associations insure SPIAs should an insurance company fail. Most States provide coverage of $250,000. So, you need to check with your State or have your insurance agent check for all the details.
Depending on your health and projected life expectancy, you may want to consider increasing your SPIA premium for a greater monthly benefit while interest rates are high. If you believe rates are going higher, you may want to consider laddering SPIAs over time or electing Multi Year Guaranteed Annuities (MYGAs) at current high rates (i.e., 3yr., 5 yr., 7yr.,etc.). MYGAs are similar to Bank CDs except MYGAs are insured by State Guarantee Associations and not the FDIC. Hope this helps.

If that were true, there would be many destitute retirees. What we have instead is a surprising number of people in this country who take social security early because they have to, and they actually live on that income without a fat portfolio backing up their plan.
Your comment reflects the tendency in personal finance forums to extrapolate from one’s own fortunate status and apply that personal view of things to the world at large.
I would point to my mom as a prime example of how many Americans are getting by in retirement on way less than many of us think is needed for a comfortable life, but I’d rather just provide data that shows your blanket statement doesn’t jibe with reality.
Data from the Social Security Administration (SSA) and the U.S. Census Bureau demonstrates that Social Security is the primary source of income for a vast portion of the elderly population.
Social Security represents 50% or more of total income for roughly 40% to 50% of aged beneficiaries.
For approximately 12% to 15% of elderly beneficiaries, Social Security provides 90% or more of their total income.
Among unmarried retirees and lower-income quartiles, Social Security frequently accounts for 80%+ of total income, proving that people routinely live on these benefits without significant personal investments backing them up.
While personal finance discussions often treat delaying until age 70 as standard practice, actual claiming behavior reflects the reality of financial necessity. Age 62 remains the single most common age for individuals to claim Social Security, with roughly 25% to 30% of claimers taking benefits as early as possible.
Well over 50% of workers claim before their Full Retirement Age (FRA). Fewer than 10% of retirees wait until age 70 to maximize their monthly payout, confirming that delaying benefits is a luxury or strategic choice that many cannot afford.
The assumption that retirees must have a large portfolio to bridge the gap to age 70 overlooks the reality of U.S. retirement account distribution. According to the Federal Reserve’s *Survey of Consumer Finances* (SCF), the median retirement savings for households aged 55–64 is under $200,000.
A significant percentage of households entering retirement age have little to no dedicated retirement account balance at all, relying on Social Security, housing equity, or family support rather than investment drawdowns.
Data from the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) Retirement Confidence Survey consistently reveals why people claim early. Around 40% to 45% of retirees leave the workforce earlier than planned.
The primary drivers are unexpected health issues, physical limitations, caregiving responsibilities, or involuntary job loss—not choosing to retire because their portfolio was ready. When forced out of work prior to FRA, claiming Social Security early becomes a necessary cash-flow lifeline rather than a portfolio calculation.
All of this data aside, my original statement still holds true: if your plan is walking the line between just adequately funded and overfunded, and a terrible sequence of returns forces you deep into the former category or below, a decision to take social security at 62 can become both necessary and completely rational.

This separate aspect of your plan, the social security timing part, definitely needs to be looked at carefully.
Assuming a Full Retirement Age of 67 with a baseline projected Social Security benefit of $32,000 per year ($2,667 per month), the claiming timeline directly impacts the permanent base income stream:
**Claiming at Age 62:** Taking benefits five years early incurs a maximum 30% permanent reduction, resulting in an annual payout of **$22,400** ($1,867 per month).
**Claiming at Age 65:** Taking benefits two years early incurs a 13.33% reduction, resulting in an annual payout of **$27,733** ($2,311 per month).
**Claiming at Age 67 (FRA):** Receiving the unadjusted baseline benefit provides **$32,000** per year ($2,667 per month).
**Claiming at Age 70:** Delaying three years past Full Retirement Age earns an 8% per year delayed retirement credit (24% total boost), pushing the permanent annual payout to **$39,680** ($3,307 per month).
While delaying claiming from age 62 to 70 increases the permanent annual payout by $17,280 (or a 77% increase over the age 62 baseline), doing so introduces a significant opportunity cost that is often overlooked.
To delay Social Security from age 62 to age 67, you must draw down from your investment portfolio to cover living expenses during those five income-free years. If you draw $22,400 annually to replace the age-62 Social Security benefit, you pull a cumulative $112,000 out of your portfolio between ages 62 and 66. If you delay all the way to age 70, bridging eight years of income requires drawing roughly $180,000 to $200,000+ from portfolio capital, depending on the inflation adjustments needed.
The opportunity cost is the investment return that missing portfolio capital would have generated had it remained invested in productive assets. Assuming a modest 6% net annual market return, pulling $112,000 out over five years forfeits tens of thousands of dollars in future compounding growth. In effect, that lost growth represents the price paid to "buy" a higher, government-backed, inflation-adjusted annuity stream for life starting at age 67 or 70.
If a retiree lives into their mid-80s or 90s, the cumulative higher Social Security payouts easily recoup that lost portfolio growth, making delay the winning trade for longevity protection. However, if a retiree has a shorter life expectancy or experiences a severe market downturn during those delay years—forcing portfolio sales at depressed prices to fund the bridge—the opportunity cost increases dramatically, altering the math.
Since you can’t reliably predict when you’ll die barring a terminal illness that is already affecting you, the social security decision isn’t automatic by any means. If your plan is heavily overfunded by a wide margin, it’s easy to simply wait until 70 because you can easily afford to pay the opportunity cost today and enjoy the certainty of increased longevity insurance. If your plan is just basically adequately funded, the added pressure on your portfolio caused by social security delay is a real consideration that could outweigh the long term benefit of delaying to 70.
In my case, I have seen in Boldin that delaying social security makes for a technically stronger plan overall, but I’m still not crazy about tapping my equity sleeve so aggressively to fund that delay, and I’ve landed on 65 as my compromise default starting age.
But I’ve also concluded that a severe market downturn between now and the time I turn 62 would change the complexion of my risk profile dramatically and I would probably opt to claim at 62 to adapt to that new reality.
By the same token, an absolute bull run tear between now and age 65 could cause me to seriously consider delaying beyond that age because of the added cushion of a larger than expected portfolio at that age.
Social security timing has this optionality component that can make the final decision a moving target depending on your level of funding, your risk tolerance and market conditions throughout the claiming window from 62 to 70.