'In any case, I'll be retiring before that and haven't included Social Security in my retirement plans. It'll be a nice bonus if it shows up'.
I stopped working full time at age 59, 4 and 1/2 years ago. I've been drawing my SS benefits for 16 months. My SS check is deposited in my checking account on the second Wednesday of every month. I use it to supplement my month to month living expenses and haven't had to touch any of my 401K retirement investment money yet. I owe less than $8,000 on my home and have no other debt other than the typical utilities, groceries, vehicle upkeep and insurance, etc. I don't live beyond my means and it has worked for me for going on 5 years. My wife will retire from the USPS in 4 years and then she will start drawing her SS and will roll over her USPS retirement into our existing 401K. We feel that our SS is more stable than our 401K investments, as witnessed from our 'now' conservative investment strategy since 2008. We haven't included any of our investments in our retirement strategy, just the opposite of some here, but it has worked well for us and if the big crash does come, it won't be from investments we were depending on to have to live.