Eschenbach, T., & Lewis, N. A., & Zhang, Y. (2012, June), When to Start Collecting Social Security: Designing a Case Study  Paper presented at 2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, San Antonio, Texas. 10.18260/1-2--22233

\bibitem{asee_peer_22233}
  Eschenbach, T., \& Lewis, N. A., \& Zhang, Y. (2012, June), \emph{When to Start Collecting Social Security: Designing a Case Study}
  Paper presented at 2012 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, San Antonio, Texas.
  10.18260/1-2--22233

Ted Eschenbach P.E., Neal A. Lewis, and Yiran Zhang.  "When to Start Collecting Social Security: Designing a Case Study".  2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, San Antonio, Texas, 2012, June.  ASEE Conferences, 2012.  https://peer.asee.org/22233 Internet.  10 May, 2024

\bibitem{asee_peer_22233}
  Ted Eschenbach P.E., Neal A. Lewis, and Yiran Zhang.
  "When to Start Collecting Social Security: Designing a Case Study".
  \emph{2012 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, San Antonio, Texas, 2012, June}.
  ASEE Conferences, 2012.
  https://peer.asee.org/22233 Internet.  10 May, 2024

@INPROCEEDINGS{asee_peer_22233
author = "Ted Eschenbach P.E., Neal A. Lewis, and Yiran Zhang"
title = "When to Start Collecting Social Security: Designing a Case Study"
booktitle = "2012 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition"
year = "2012"
month = "June"
address = "San Antonio, Texas"
publisher = "ASEE Conferences"
note = {https://peer.asee.org/22233}
number = {10.18260/1-2--22233}
}

TY  - CPAPER
AB  -        When to Start Collecting Social Security: an Economic Case StudyAbstractMany engineers, faculty, and the parents and grandparents of our students must answer thequestion of whether to start collecting reduced Social Security payments at age 62, wait until age66 for regular payments, or to delay until later for enhanced payments. While the U.S. SocialSecurity system is analyzed, the approach is applicable for similar problems with other definedbenefit retirement systems.The publications of the Social Security Administration focus on the dollar difference in monthlypayments and do not even touch on the question of the time value of money—which can clearlybe significant in making the correct choice. For students in the introductory engineeringeconomy course this can be framed as: “Your grandparents need advice. Obviously the interestrate and the predicted age at death are both uncertain. Choices need to be analyzed for a varietyof interest rates and expected lives. Present the results in a format that makes sense to someonewho understands the meaning of present worth and rate of return, but who may not be able tocalculate them.”This paper summarizes previous work and considers how the attractiveness of the early collectoption may be eliminated by rules on income from continuing employment and on benefits froma second pension. However, the focus is pedagogical. What data is needed, where can it befound, what economic measures are valid and easiest to understand, how can different choices becompared, and how to communicate the results?Some situations are most easily described by analyzing a scenario. This can be generalized into atable of scenarios or into an analysis of the difference between choices. The analysis andpresentation are done with a spreadsheet model, whose development and structure are described.The paper closes with an overview of deeper levels of analysis that may be suitable for moreadvanced courses.                                                                                                 1
AU  - Ted Eschenbach P.E.
AU  - Neal A. Lewis
AU  - Yiran Zhang
CY  - San Antonio, Texas
DA  - 2012/06/10
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - When to Start Collecting Social Security: Designing a Case Study
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/22233
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--22233
ER  -