"Tired of Waiting for You" is a song by the English rock band The Kinks. It was released as a single on February 17, 1965, in the United States and peaked at number 6 on the Billboard charts. It then appeared on their second studio album, Kinda Kinks. It was the group's highest-charting single in the US, tied with "Come Dancing", which achieved the same chart position eighteen years later in 1983.
Source:Wikipedia
In early 1965, the Kinks were looking for a hit single to follow You Really Got Me and the similar-sounding All Day and All of the Night. To break out of the rut, the band recorded Tired of Waiting for You, an uncharacteristic ballad. “Tired of Waiting for You was written when I was 15,” Ray Davies said on YouTube. “It had no lyrics to speak of on the track, but I hadn’t really formulated them in my head because it was written as an instrumental. So, I said I had a sore throat, could I come back the next day to record it? And overnight I wrote the lyrics, wrote them on the Tube coming into the studio.”
Unless you are a superfan of early British invasion music from bands such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, and yes, The Kinks, I wouldn't expect many of you to remember this song from 60 years ago. Therefore, I have included a YouTube link to the single below.
The Kinks - Tired Of Waiting For You (Official Audio)
When it comes to Social Security, it seems many Americans are “Tired of Waiting” for their monthly checks to start and take permanently reduced benefits as early as age 62, the youngest age at which you can collect this government sponsored program that is the cornerstone of many people's retirement income. You see, you can start receiving your Social Security retirement benefits as early as age 62. However, you are entitled to full benefits only when you reach your full retirement age, which for anyone born after 1960 is age 67. If you delay taking your benefits from your full retirement age up to age 70, your benefit amount will increase by 8% a year, giving you your maximum benefit for the rest of your life. It will also provide this higher benefit amount to a surviving spouse for the rest of their life if you pass away first.
Taking Social Security benefits at age 62 instead of your full retirement age (FRA) will result in permanently reduced monthly payments for the rest of your life. For example, if your FRA is 67, taking benefits at 62 could mean a 30% reduction in your monthly payments. As you can see in our first chart below, this has not deterred more than 20% of both men and women from taking the lower benefits as soon as possible.
This can be a significant factor if you live a long life, as the cumulative amount you receive over time will be lower than if you had waited to claim at your FRA. The longer you wait, the larger your monthly benefit will be, as the Social Security Administration applies cost-of-living adjustments to a larger base amount. After Social Security was last reformed in 1983, the “normal retirement age”, the age at which people qualify for full benefits, FRA , moved up steadily from 65 to 67. Due to these incentives and the longer, healthier lifespans of many Americans, the average retirement age has also begun to increase.
As you can see, after bottoming out around age 63 in the 1990s, the average age at which people now collect Social Security has been steadily increasing towards age 65, which is also the year they become eligible for Medicare health insurance benefits. While we understand that some people are forced into earlier retirement due to health issues or the real impact of a physically demanding job, most Americans, and their spouses, would benefit from waiting a few more years to collect permanently higher Social Security benefits for the rest of their lives.
It is interesting to note that when Social Security was last reformed, the minimum age to collect benefits was not increased in the same manner as the full retirement age. Raising the minimum age for Social Security from age 62 to age 65 could potentially save the federal government a significant amount of money. This is partly due to the three years less that benefits would be paid during a person's lifetime. However, most people would continue working during those years and be paying additional FICA tax into the Social Security system. Some studies have shown that increasing the minimum benefit age to 65 and then indexing that age and the full retirement age to future life expectancy gains would reduce the Social Security trust fund shortfall by anywhere from 14% to as much as 50%.
Many people in their early 60s are “Tired of Waiting” to leave their jobs and want to retire early. However, the reduced benefits that they will receive for the rest of their life could be substantial. While taking Social Security benefits at age 62 offers immediate income, it comes with the trade-off of permanently reduced monthly payments. The CFPs of Impel Wealth Management are here to help you carefully consider your circumstances, including your health, financial needs, and long-term goals, as we continue “Moving Life Forward.”
© 2025 Jesse Hurst
Senior Wealth Manager
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