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You can start any time to find out about your & spouse benefits. Remember the SSA estimates may not be accurate. It will update in 6 months or whenever work ends. Best to find out how the system works now. Your spouse will also need to be 62+ to collect benefits. You need to know Full Retirement Age, FRA. You may find it is better to work 4-5 years to be 66-67 to get 100% of your benefit then. You may find spouse will get more benefit later. At 65 Medicare kicks in & you will have medical decisions to make.
Don't know where you work or bank so that you can find other retirement planners & not depend so much on SSA. When it comes to spouse benefits SSA may not get it correct. The retirement planner can work with SSA earning records. Then you can determine how SS works with pension, 401k, or other funds you have.
I am already fully retired with a full military pension, including health insurance for myself and spouse, and a second smaller pension. For us, drawing at 62 (she is a month older than I am) allows significant cost avoidance in mortgage expenses over the long term - I can retire the mortgage at age 69 v. 88. I have done some back of the envelope math calculations (and how that mortgage retirement timeline changes at each age), and drawing at 62 v. 65 v. FRA v. 70 when the cost avoidance is taken into account, the break even is 91-94 depending on which of the three other options I pick.
The wife gets 55% of my military pension and my SS if I predecease her (both indexed for inflation), and that covers her expenses plus about $500 per month over expenses, and once the mortgage is retired, it is significantly more, so she is covered financially without the "wait until 70" to ensure she does not out live the "assets."
I would like to claim this was all a long term plan and I'm a savvy guy, but the truth is I didn't have better options than the military, enjoyed the career, and it was 20+ years later when I figured out how significant a pension was - I consider myself fortunate and blessed.
I am already fully retired with a full military pension, including health insurance for myself and spouse, and a second smaller pension. For us, drawing at 62 (she is a month older than I am) allows significant cost avoidance in mortgage expenses over the long term -
I had to go to a Social Security office a few times to take over my mother’s affairs when dementia kicked in. The rural office was painless but the urban ones are awful. Stuffed full of people trying to scam SSDI and nobody in the packed waiting room is over 60.
If I have to go to a Social Security office for some reason, it’s going to be a rural one.
Thanks all. I do have a SS online account already set up. I will use that at 3 months out. Will my wife need to set up her own account, or can she apply for spousal benefits through my account?
Thanks all. I do have a SS online account already set up. I will use that at 3 months out. Will my wife need to set up her own account, or can she apply for spousal benefits through my account?
does your wife have an earnings record of her own ?
if she has no earnings record at all then it is a different story but if she worked and has a minimum qualification , she must take her own first . then a reduced spousal benefit will get added since she is filling before fra.
if you both file early and she has no earnings record of her own then you both get reduced benefits as per this chart
keep in mind she does not get half your fra amount in that case .
I applied for ss benefits online 3 months before I turned 62. I just got my first electronic deposit and I could not be happier. Right now at this moment in time, the system works. At least for me. Now its off to the lake for some more fishing. Oh yeah, I will never ever work again, never and I mean it.
As I understand it, when the "qualified" spouse starts SS, if the non-working spouse is at least 62 at that point, the non-working spouse gets 50% of what the qualified, working spouse draws.
I may be wrong about that, though.
Is the non-working spouse's 50% taken from the working spouses contributions?
As I understand it, when the "qualified" spouse starts SS, if the non-working spouse is at least 62 at that point, the non-working spouse gets 50% of what the qualified, working spouse draws.
I may be wrong about that, though.
Not quite the deal
Everything is based on fra amounts as far as spousal not what the spouse gets as a check. If the person getting spousal is under fra they don’t get half It is reduced the same as the primary benefit is reduced.
There is always a pay cut involved off the fra amount when filing earlier....
Can anyone advise on the correct sequence/timing when primary wage earner is filing for FRB and spouse is filing for spousal benefit at the same time. Spouse is eligible for restricted application.
Do both file on-line at the same time or must primary wage earner file first and spouse file sometime after. Optimally, primary wage earner and spousal benefits to commence at the same time.
We did primary first . When that went through we did spousal
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