 long enough to benefit from delaying taking social security and maximizing those payments and so basically it's 70 that the max out at 70 there's no reason to wait past that to your point the money still has to come from somewhere so let's say you retired at 65 you choose to delay taking social security until 70 because you want to max it you're making the assumption that you're going to live long enough to benefit from that from 65 to 70 the money has to come from somewhere and it's your portfolio so let's say that