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So, I'm thinking of collecting at 65 (next January), that September my Wife will be 62. If her SS benefit at 62 is less than mine, and she can collect her lower benefit, and will get a bump to meet my total ?. Example: at 65, my SS is $2500, hers at 62 would be $1000.....she would receive her $1000, plus an additional $1500 to equal my benefit ?
From the SSA website..... How Much Will My Spouse Receive? If your spouse qualifies for benefits on their own record, we will pay that amount first. If the benefit on your record is higher, they will get an additional amount on your record so that the combination of benefits equals that higher amount.
Quote:
Originally Posted by beer belly
Also from the SS Website
At their full retirement age, the spouse’s benefit cannot exceed one-half of your full retirement amount.
Does seem to contradict the first statement ?. I do trust in what you say though, wish you could sit in the chair next to me here to help with planning
I think you are misreading the first statement. The amount she would get "on your record" means the amount of her spousal benefit, not your direct benefit. So the comparison is between what she would get directly based on her own work record and the amount she would get as a spousal benefit. I think you are reading the "on your record" meaning your direct benefit.
They don't make it easy to understand, that is for certain.
I think this has been covered well here. If your spouse's SS benefit is less than 1/2 yours, they will bump her up to 1/2 of yours.
The interesting corollary to this is that if you are divorced, your ex spouse(s) can ALSO collect 1/2 of your benefit - does not decrease yours or your current spouse's benefit.
Your benefit at 65 will not be FRA or Full Retirement Age. It will be less depending on when you retire.
From there, if your wife waited till whatever her Full Retirement Age is to collect SS she would get her benefit plus enough money from Uncle Sugar to meet 1/2 of your early payout amount. Since she is planning on SS earlier than her FRA, this benefit will then be adjusted downward for her early taking of SS.
Your benefit at 65 will not be FRA or Full Retirement Age. It will be less depending on when you retire.
From there, if your wife waited till whatever her Full Retirement Age is to collect SS she would get her benefit plus enough money from Uncle Sugar to meet 1/2 of your early payout amount. Since she is planning on SS earlier than her FRA, this benefit will then be adjusted downward for her early taking of SS.
just to reiterate …spousal is Not based on what the higher earning spouse got as an early pay out if let’s say the husband filed early
when they took theirs does not come in to play at all , all that matters is they filed .
spousal adders are always based on both the earners fra amounts regardless …
it is their own benefit that is effected by when they filed .
so let’s say the wife filed at 62 and their fra amount is 1200 .. but they filed early so they got 800.
their husbands fra amount regardless of what age he filed is what is calculated off of , so let’s say his fra amount is 2800 ..
so half his full is 1400 …. they then take the wife’s fra amount , regardless of when she filed , which is 1200 and subtract it from the higher half .
in this case it is 1400-1200 so 200 is added to the wife’s early benefit of 800 for a total of 1000 ….
it will always be less then half since the wife filed early but as far as when the husband filed plays no roll in this case
A great planning resource for SS is available at Mike Piper's opensocialsecurity.com site. Enter the FRA benefit for you and your spouse and the program will calculate based on the claiming age you select. You can try different claiming dates to see a range of results. It also projects lifetime benefits based on longevity assumptions. If you use it, make sure to scroll to the bottom of the page for a helpful "heat map" feature which allows you to visualize the differences at various ages. Best of all, Mike has made this resource free to use.
A great planning resource for SS is available at Mike Piper's opensocialsecurity.com site. Enter the FRA benefit for you and your spouse and the program will calculate based on the claiming age you select. You can try different claiming dates to see a range of results. It also projects lifetime benefits based on longevity assumptions. If you use it, make sure to scroll to the bottom of the page for a helpful "heat map" feature which allows you to visualize the differences at various ages. Best of all, Mike has made this resource free to use.
i had a discussion with mike piper in another forum and learned something i wasn’t aware of since i pretty much know only what i was involved in .
mike made us aware that if the lower spouse takes ss earlier then fra there is a second slight cut beside the one on their own benefit .
so as an example if the husband got 1k as a fra amount and took it at 62 he would be cut to 750 to make the numbers easy .
if the wife filed at her fra her max would be her own benefit plus an adder bringing her to half the husbands fra amount .
as mike pointed out .
A spouse can choose to retire as early as age 62, but doing so may result in a benefit as little as 32.5 percent of the worker's primary insurance amount. A spousal benefit is reduced 25/36 of one percent for each month before normal retirement age, up to 36 months. If the number of months exceeds 36, then the benefit is further reduced 5/12 of one percent per month.
For a spouse who is not entitled to benefits on his or her own earnings record, this reduction factor is applied to the base spousal benefit, which is 50 percent of the worker's primary insurance amount. For example, if the worker's primary insurance amount is $1,600 and the worker's spouse chooses to begin receiving benefits 36 months before his or her normal retirement age, we first take 50 percent of $1,600 to get an $800 base spousal benefit. Then we compute the reduction factor, which is 36 times 25/36 of one percent, or 25 percent. Applying a 25 percent reduction to the $800 amount gives a spousal benefit of $600. Thus, in this case, the final spousal benefit is 37.5 percent of the primary insurance amount.
that makes my hair hurt . best use the calculators on line if filing early . it’s a lot of math otherwise
Last edited by mathjak107; 02-25-2024 at 08:48 AM..
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. Thank you all for the info.
