One of the major concerns for middle-aged folks is when to retire and start receiving social security payments. The Social Security Administration (SSA) gives you the following guidelines:

a. Retire at age 62. SSA payments are reduced by 25 percent, and you can only earn less than $14,000/year before further reduction of your payments.

b. Retire at 66 (full retirement age). You can also continue to work and earn as much as you want with no penalties. Typical yearly SSA payments for engineers are $20,000 to $30,000/year.

c. Retire at 70, and SSA payments will increase by 25 percent.

The decision is obviously dependent on the life expectancy of the person and the expected future interest (inflation) rate. Each participant should use a different inflation rate (i%) or consumer purchasing index or (CPI) to advise whether to retire at 62, 66, or 70 based on the persons life expectancy. Indicate the age where there is between any two of the three choices. You can choose 0 percent, low or hyper-inflation i% rates, or half-percent increments not in the tables, depending on your outlook for the economy into the future. Hint: treat the SSA problems posed here as independent items from your income. SSA is an annuity where the decision when to take it rests on the merits of the three options above, nothing to do with your salary.