3 ideas
Each year you delay claiming Social Security past full retirement age raises your benefit about 8% for life, inflation-adjusted, up to age 70. Using savings to cover living costs while you wait effectively purchases a larger inflation-protected annuity more cheaply than any private insurer sells one. For married couples, the higher earner's delay also locks in a larger survivor benefit for whichever spouse lives longer.
Divide retirement spending into necessities (housing, food, insurance, utilities) and discretionary wants (travel, gifts, extras). Cover the necessities with guaranteed lifetime income such as Social Security, pensions and immediate income annuities, then invest the remaining savings for growth and draw on it for the discretionary budget. A market crash then cuts only optional spending, never the floor that keeps you housed and fed.
A sustainable starting withdrawal is roughly 4% of savings in the first year, adjusted for inflation afterward, which has historically lasted about 30 years. The rate must flex. Skip inflation raises or trim withdrawals after bad market years, because heavy selling during early-retirement downturns (sequence-of-returns risk) can deplete a portfolio even if long-run average returns are good.