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By Peter Coy

Opinion Writer

I got a ton of mail on my Monday newsletter about why so many people claim Social Security benefits early. A lot came from readers defending their decisions to start drawing benefits as early as age 62 rather than waiting until 70, the age that I wrote is actually ideal for many people.

“The reason people take Social Security ASAP is because they need the money!” Peggy Bishop of Carlsbad, Calif., wrote. “What’s so hard to understand about that?”

Todd Grant of Deming, Wash., wrote, “To insinuate that people are claiming early for reasons that are not well thought out or understood is shaming and stress-inducing.”

People get just 70 percent of their full Social Security benefit if they claim at 62, the full benefit at 67 and 124 percent of the benefit if they claim at 70, as I explained.

Many readers said that while they didn’t absolutely need to start collecting Social Security early, they calculated that they would come out ahead by investing some or all of their checks in the stock market rather than waiting. Several even sent me their spreadsheets. I’ll get to those in a minute.

I acknowledge that there are legitimate reasons to claim early, some of which I mentioned on Monday and some of which I found out about from your emails. (Thanks again to my smart readers.) But as a general rule, I stand by what I wrote. The most important reason is also the hardest to explain, so I’m going to leave it for the end. And I should say, if it’s not already clear, that I am not a financial adviser.

I agree with Peggy Bishop that some people simply have to collect Social Security at the first opportunity. Maybe they have big expenses, or heavy debts, or lost their jobs or are burned out and need to retire. They don’t have enough savings to tide them over to age 70 without Social Security. Also, as I wrote Monday, if you have reason to think you will die young, collecting early makes perfect sense.

Saying you should delay claiming Social Security when possible is not the same as saying you should keep working past the breaking point of body and soul. I agree with the labor economist Teresa Ghilarducci, who in a book published this year (which I wrote about) said that the main solution to America’s retirement crisis isn’t working longer but shoring up retirement benefits. That said, if you can manage to delay claiming even though you’ve stopped working, you’ll likely come out ahead.

Readers brought up other cases where claiming early might be the right decision, although it’s impossible to generalize. One is if you have children living at home who can also collect benefits because you’re retired. Another is if you are the younger, lower-earning member of a couple; it might make sense for you to claim early while your........

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