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Your Money Guide on the Side

Why I'm Taking Social Security at 62 (And Why the "Wait Until 70 Crowd" Might Want to Pay Attention)

Your Money Guide on the Side

Tyler Gardner

Business, Education, Entrepreneurship, Investing, How To

4.92.4K Ratings

🗓️ 30 March 2026

⏱️ 44 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Pre-Order Tyler's First Book, Real Wealth, here & be immediately eligible for exclusive bonuses between now and December 1st! As always, a MASSIVE thank you to this week's sponsors: LMNT⁠: regardless of who much money you have, if you're not feeling your best physically and mentally, it means very little. That's why I drink ⁠LMNT⁠ daily (well, multiple times a day) to continue to be as productive as I can be after my workouts. Try ⁠drinklmnt.com/tyler⁠ today and let me know what your favorite flavor is! Copilot Money⁠: if you are looking for one of the most well-designed money apps out there, check out ⁠Copilot Money⁠ today. My friends and family continue to rave about it, and they now have all of their money needs in one place. Check out ⁠try.copilot.money/tyler ⁠today and use code TYLER2 for two free months, so you can see if it works for you! Anthropic⁠: I use Claude AI every single day as a thought partner and business strategist. To become more efficient and solve problems more quickly and effectively, check out ⁠claude.ai/tyler⁠ today. There is no single business move I have made in the past year that has been more worthwhile and productive. And on to the show notes! When should you take Social Security? It’s one of the most debated — and most personal — financial decisions you’ll ever make. In this episode, Tyler makes a serious, data-backed case for taking benefits at 62 — not as a blanket recommendation, but as a counterpoint to the conventional advice to always wait. Because this decision isn’t just math. It’s math layered on top of real life. In this episode, Tyler covers: The break-even math between taking benefits at 62, 67, and 70 Why waiting only “wins” if you live past your late 70s or early 80s The idea that a dollar at 62 isn’t equal to a dollar at 82 How the “go-go, slow-go, no-go” phases of retirement change how money is experienced The often-overlooked healthcare gap between 62 and 65 — and what it can cost How the earnings test reduces (but doesn’t eliminate) benefits if you keep working Why Social Security decisions should factor in your spouse’s survivor benefit Tyler also introduces a practical framework — six key questions — to help you make the decision based on your own life, not a generic rule: Health. Healthcare. Work status. Income needs. Spousal impact. And how you actually want to spend your time. The core idea: This isn’t about maximizing dollars. It’s about maximizing life. For some people, waiting is the right call. For others, taking it early — and using that money when it matters most — may be the better decision. If the show’s been helpful, leaving a quick review on Apple or Spotify genuinely helps. Hope this gives you something to think about this week.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Your capacity to enjoy your life is not linear. It peaks, it declines. The go-go years are finite, and then they're gone. A dollar deployed during those years returns something that $1.82 simply cannot. And why wouldn't you want to enjoy the memory for longer?

0:19.5

Hello, friends. This is Tyler Gardner, welcoming you to another episode of your

0:23.9

Money Guide on the Side, where it is my job to simplify what seems complex, add nuance to what

0:29.6

seems simple, and learn from and alongside some of the brightest minds in money, finance,

0:35.3

and investing. So let's get started and get you one step closer to where you need to be.

0:41.3

Before we get into today's episode, I am genuinely thrilled to share this with you.

0:47.1

After three years of listening to your questions and locking myself in a room to answer as many of them as I can,

0:55.4

I decided it would be slightly more efficient to write a book. So I did. It's called Real Wealth, published by Norton

1:02.5

out December 6th of this year. Yeah, the kid whose parents thought he might be illiterate

1:07.8

until he was 21, and whose high school English teachers passed

1:11.0

him on the condition he never took another English class, and I'm dang proud of how it

1:14.7

turned out and what I believe it can and will do for all of you. Here are three quick reasons

1:20.5

to pre-order right now, and I'll tell you exactly how at the end. One, you'll actually finish this book.

1:28.3

I know, low bar, except it really isn't.

1:31.3

I've spent two decades watching people's eyes go blank the moment I said asset allocation.

1:37.3

I took that personally.

1:38.3

This is my response.

1:40.3

You know the look, and I refuse to be the cause of it.

1:43.3

Number two, the number one comment I get

1:46.7

thousands of times is, you left something out. You're right. I'm making 60 second videos about

1:54.7

topics that deserve 60 minutes. This is my answer, everything in one place, no countdown clock, no algorithm cutting me off.

2:03.7

And number three, what I'm most excited about, every month through December.

...

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