Thanks for biting. By now you’ve realized the transition to ritirement is complicated. Dozens of moving parts, many of which are unique to you which makes giving advice problematical.
You’ve already started your transition and many of your variables are now etched in stone. You raise the issue of starting SS benefits or withdrawing from TSP. Here’s my initial thoughts: Under ‘normal’ circumstances, one should not take SS benefit before one’s full retirement age. And that applies to your wife too.
Having said that, if you wait beyond your FRA, the benefit increases .667% every month, or 8% annually until you reach age 70. If you think that’s better than what you’ll generate with your TSP money, then draw down the TSP if you need it and hold off on your SS benefits.
Statistically for a reasonably health man and woman, there’s roughly a 93% chance that one of them will be alive at age 93. If you think of Social Security as a defined benefit pension plan with a cost of living rider, you can expect that benefit to be there.
If you’ve died first, then she will get the larger benefit (yours) for the rest of her life. Over that span, your TSP money will probably grow faster that the COLA benefit, if you’re not too conservative. If you want to know my thoughts about the future of Social Security, I’ve written blog posts about this. Here’s one of over 130 post I’ve written about Social Security;
https://tinyurl.com/yy9ga2bx
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