Collecting social security is a big decision. If you collect your retirement benefit as soon as it is available, you could be getting as low as 70% of your Full Retirement Benefit. If you wait even longer than your full retirement benefit, your social security will grow at approximately 8% per year, collecting deferred retirement credits. This delay could be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars of your life expectancy. Many people make this decision too quickly. We think a full analysis should be done to determine your optimal age to collect your social security. In many cases, one or both members of a couple should delay all the way to age 70.