Are You Really Ready to Start Collecting Social Security? 3 Signs It Might Be the Perfect Time.

According to researchers, the average adult makes up to 35,000 decisions a day. A decision may be as minor as choosing between grape and strawberry jam on your toast in the morning or as huge as deciding to get married, have a child, or buy a home. And the decisions just keep coming.

Once you’re old enough, you must determine the right time to begin collecting Social Security benefits. Here are three signs that the time may be right.

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1. You’ve saved enough

If you plan to claim benefits and retire, there have been hundreds (if not thousands) of articles written about how much is enough. The truth is, how much you need depends on your situation. If you live in an area with a low cost of living, have no debt (or almost no debt), and can easily live your best life on a guaranteed income like Social Security benefits and withdrawals from your retirement account, what others say you should have really doesn’t matter. What matters is having enough to pay your bills with money left over to do the things that interest you most.

Here’s the tricky bit: You must decide whether you have enough based on your specific circumstances, and since you can’t see the future, you can’t be entirely certain that you’ll get it right. For example, if you run into higher-than-expected healthcare costs in retirement, you may wish you’d worked longer and waited to claim benefits.

2. You want to collect early – and you’re ready

If you’ve lost a job and can’t find another, have serious health concerns, or plan to collect benefits early as you continue to work, you face even more decisions. Let’s say you want to claim benefits at 62. Are you willing to permanently receive benefits 30% lower than they would be if you’d waited until 67?

If the amount you have saved for retirement is enough to offset the amount you’re losing out on by claiming early, it makes the decision to claim much easier. There are online calculators that can help you determine how long the money you’ve saved and invested will last. If calculations indicate that you have enough to last you through the rest of your life, it’s a good sign that now is a good time to collect.

3. You have “extra” available

You have enough cash or cash equivalents to draw from when you face an emergency or the market is in bad shape. Whether you keep that money in a high-yield savings account, certificate of deposit (CD), or another interest-bearing account is up to you. The point is to make sure you have enough saved so you don’t have to withdraw from your retirement account when you need to sell more of your assets to get the money you need.

If you have money you can easily access in times of trouble, you may be ready to claim Social Security benefits.