Best Reason to Delay Social Security To Age 70

When is a good time to start your Social Security? David McKnight reveals why smart retirement planning means waiting until age 70 for reasons that have nothing to do with a bigger check… and everything to do with the years in between being your best window for Roth conversions.  In this episode, David McKnight addresses one of the most common questions he gets from people approaching retirement: "When should I start taking Social Security?" David believes that there's a compelling reason for having 70 as your default Social Security claiming age – and that isn't so that you get a bigger Social Security check… One of the key reasons to wait until 70 is something that rarely comes up in the traditional Social Security discussion: it has to do with taxes. David stresses that the years between retirement and age 70 can be some of the most valuable years of your entire financial life. Why? Because they may represent your best opportunity to execute Roth conversions. David touches upon the so-called Retirement Income Valley and the benefits it brings about. With a wrong approach, you may lock yourself into a permanently smaller Social Security check, and may have caused much of that check to become taxable because you simultaneously do Roth conversions. David suggests a different approach: retiring, delaying Social Security, and spending the next several years aggressively repositioning your tax-deductible dollars to tax-free. Once all that heavy lifting is done, you can then turn on Social Security. By following that strategy you accomplish two things: you lock in a substantially larger Social Security benefit and potentially reduce the other income that could cause that larger benefit to become taxable. Remember: delaying Social Security doesn't automatically make your Social Security tax-free. David talks about the IRMAA objection some may make as they hear his recommended strategy, and also touches upon his so-called "rip the band-aid off" approach to Roth conversions. David stresses that his interest isn't in whether a Roth conversion causes you to pay an extra few thousand dollars in Medicare premiums in one particular year. What he's interested in is whether the strategy reduces the total amount you pay in taxes and Medicare premiums over the balance of your retirement. "Social Security shouldn't be thought of as an investment, it's more like longevity insurance", says David. According to the 2026 Social Security Trustees Report, the Retirement Survivors Trust Fund is projected to exhaust its reserves in 2032 if Congress does nothing. However, that doesn't mean it's going to disappear, ongoing payroll tax revenue would still be sufficient. If higher taxes ultimately become part of the solution, then that only reinforces the importance of getting to tax-free before that happens. Your goal shouldn't simply be to maximize Social Security, it should be to maximize all of your after-tax streams of income.  Mentioned in this episode: David's national bestselling book: The Guru Gap: How America's Financial Gurus Are Leading You Astray, and How to Get Back on Track DavidMcKnight.com DavidMcKnightBooks.com PowerOfZero.com (free video series) @mcknightandco on Twitter  @davidcmcknight on Instagram David McKnight on YouTube 2026 Social Security Trustees Report