Just came across Dave Ramsey's take on Social Security again, and honestly it's pretty wild how contrarian his advice is compared to what most financial advisors recommend.

So here's the thing - most people are told to wait as long as possible to claim Social Security, right? But Dave Ramsey says you can actually claim as early as 62, and he's not wrong about the math if you do one specific thing. The catch? You have to invest every single check you get.

I looked into this a bit more. If you claim at 62, yeah, your monthly check is about 30% smaller than if you wait until full retirement age (66 or 67 depending on when you were born). And if you wait all the way to 70, studies show you could end up with over $182,000 more in lifetime benefits. That's a real number.

But here's where Ramsey's strategy comes in. He argues that if you take those smaller checks at 62 and dump them into a solid mutual fund, you can actually come out ahead compared to waiting. The math is that your investment returns could make up the difference between the smaller early checks and the bigger checks you'd get later.

Now, the realistic part - average mutual funds have returned around 4.67% over the past 20 years or so. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 has averaged 10.7% annually over the last 30 years. So theoretically, if you picked the right fund, the Dave Ramsey approach could work.

But and this is important - Ramsey never really addresses the elephant in the room. Most people claiming Social Security at 62 aren't doing it because they want to invest. They're claiming early because they need the money to live on. If you're in that boat, this strategy obviously doesn't apply to you.

It's an interesting financial thought experiment, but it requires discipline and financial stability that not everyone has. Worth thinking about if you're actually in a position to invest your checks, but definitely not one-size-fits-all advice.