The less personal savings you have going into retirement, the more reliant you’re apt to be on Social Security. Now there’s no single savings figure that guarantees you’ll be financially secure throughout your senior years, but as a general rule, if you retire with 10 times your ending salary in an IRA or 401(k) plan, you’re in pretty good shape.
If your savings balance isn’t looking particularly robust, then you may need to delay your Social Security filing as long as possible to compensate with a higher monthly benefit.
Or, you may decide that if you’ve socked away a lot of money, you’ll file sooner and use your benefits to travel or enjoy life at a younger age. But either way, the amount of money you have saved should play a role in that decision.