Dave Ramsey has 2 reasons why you should claim Social Security at 62. Both are wrong

• Research shows that 90 percent of current workers will receive more lifetime Social Security income if they wait until age 70 to claim benefits.

• Claiming early permanently reduces survivor benefits for a spouse if the highest earner dies first.

• Deferring Social Security until 70 offers guaranteed monthly benefit increases against uncertain investment returns.

• A recent study identified a single habit that doubled Americans’ retirement savings and moved retirement from dream to reality. Read more here.

When you turn 62, you become eligible to claim your Social Security benefits. Most financial experts strongly advise you to wait to start checks, despite the fact that you can apply for benefits to start as soon as possible. However, financial expert Dave Ramsey took a different stance.

The Ramsey Solutions blog lists two specific reasons why you should claim benefits at 62. Unfortunately, both reasons are wrong. Here are the two reasons listed, along with some details on why both are so problematic.

The first big reason Ramsey says to claim Social Security benefits early is that you should try to take the money while you’re still alive.

“In most cases, it actually makes more sense to take your pension benefits sooner rather than later. Why? Because your pension payments die when you die…so you might as well take the money and make the most of it while you can,” says the Ramsey Solutions blog.

The first big problem with this advice is that it’s wrong. When Social Security was created, a system of early filing penalties and delayed retirement credits was included to try to make sure you can claim at any age and receive the same benefits as someone who filed earlier or later. But life expectancy has changed since that system was put in place, and research now shows that up to 90 percent of today’s workers will end up with more lifetime Social Security income if they wait until age 70.

So while Ramsey said to get the money before you die, chances are you are won’t you die before reaching your late start annuity, and you could end up with hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional discretionary income if you delay your claim.

The second big problem with this advice is that it could end up putting your husband in a bad spot.

If you are the biggest earner and you die first, your spouse receives survivor benefits. Unfortunately, if you filed earlier, you would have reduced those benefits, leaving your spouse with much less than if you had waited. You want to maximize the money your widow or widower gets if you die first and you made more money during your working life, because otherwise they may struggle financially when you’re gone.

Ramsey’s second argument for claiming early is that you can get the money and start investing it. This may be an even worse reason to claim benefits at age 62. There are a number of problems with this suggestion.

First, you will need money to live. There are limits to how long you can work when collecting Social Security if you’re not at full retirement age, so if you’re claiming benefits and trying to invest the money, where exactly are the funds supposed to come from to pay the bills? Sure, you could theoretically live off some of your investments while you claim that Social Security invests the amount you collect in benefits — but that seems like a waste of investing your benefits because you’re pulling more from your investments to cover the bills that benefits could cover.

Second, investing a lot of money in retirement is usually considered to be quite a risk. Most people start moving some of their portfolio out of stocks, but Ramsey suggests claiming Social Security and investing that money for big returns — keeping in mind that if the market goes down and you don’t have time to wait for the recovery, you’ll lock in losses because you have to sell those investments to generate income to live.

Third, if you delay a Social Security claim, you increase your monthly benefit for each month you wait until age 70. This is guaranteed growth. So you give up on a safe thing to invest in and just hope that everything will work out.

None of these arguments is a good reason to start Social Security at age 62. You shouldn’t take Ramsey’s advice and instead should wait as long as possible to start your Social Security checks to give yourself the best chance at the retirement security you deserve.

Most Americans drastically underestimate how much they need to retire and overestimate how prepared they are. But the data shows that people with one habit have more double the savings of those who do not.

And no, it has nothing to do with increasing income, saving, clipping coupons, or even downsizing your lifestyle. It’s much simpler (and more powerful) than anything. Honestly, it’s shocking that more people don’t adopt this habit, considering how easy it is.