Hi Larry!
At age 62, due to some chronic health and unemployment issues, I was forced to take an early retirement with Social Security. Since that time, my income has been below the early retirement, required limits but, I am in the process of selling what was to be my retirement property that is located just outside of Washington, DC. I purchased this property right before the Financial Crisis in 2008 but, afterwards, during much "better" times, still somehow managed to pay ahead on the mortgage. Unfortunately, the equity in this property has not "recovered" much since 2008 and I will incur a ~$60k loss away from the original purchase price once the sale has been completed. Although I will reach full retirement age of 66 in May of 2019, I wanted to know if the proceeds from the sale (<$100,000) will cause any issues with my current Social Security monthly payments?

I worked as a software developer and quality assurance executive for nearly all of my career and this, as you can easily imagine, required extended periods of time sitting in front of a computer. I strongly suspect that this chronic inactivity and sitting for so very long has contributed to the leg and had numbness that I am currently experiencing along with a substantial dizziness I now experience when I stand up and walk. Should this chronic condition actually be caused from these very extended hours of sitting, continuing to working further will only make my current condition worse so, I am wondering if I should pursue obtaining disability benefits. Clearly, my condition must be verified with a physician but, any advice that you can give would be greatly appreciated at this juncture...

Thanks, in advance, for your time and consideration!
Best Regards,
LEE

Hi Lee,

In answer to your first question, income from the sale of a home is not counted as earnings for purposes of Social Security's earnings test, so the sale of your home won't have any effect on your ability to receive your Social Security benefits.

I'm sorry to hear about your health issues. I can't judge whether or not your problems would be severe enough to be considered disabling by Social Security. All I can tell you is that in order to qualify for Social Security disability benefits (SSDI), your impairment(s) would have to be judged severe enough to prevent you from being able to do any type of 'substantial gainful activity' (SGA). The current monthly Social Security SGA guideline is $1180.

In addition to meeting the medical impairment guideline, you can't actually be working and earning more than an average of $1180 per month and qualify for SSDI. Furthermore, you would need to meet the insured status requirement for SSDI in order to potentially qualify for those benefits. To be insured for SSDI, you need to have at least 20 quarters of coverage ( https://www.ssa.gov/oact/COLA/QC.html) within the 10 year period immediately preceding the point in time that you became disabled.

Bottom line, probably the only way to find out for sure whether or not you qualify for SSDI would be to file a claim with Social Security. If and when you do so they will ask you where you've been for medical treatment and they will request your pertinent medical records (with your authorization). A disability expert will then analyze your records to determine whether or not you qualify, but he or she may also set up a consultative exam with a doctor of their choosing if your available records aren't sufficient to establish that you meet the requirements. After all of that is done, the disability examiner and a medical doctor will either approve or disallow your claim. However, if they disallow your claim you would have the right to file an appeal (https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10041.pdf).

If you do end up being approved for SSDI, you would not be able to draw both SSDI and your regular Social Security benefits. What would happen is that your Social Security benefit rate would be recalculated to remove part of the reduction that you took in your benefit rate for starting your benefits early. For example, if it was determined that you qualified for SSDI effective with the month you turned age 64, your current benefit rate would be adjusted to reflect that you only received 2 years of reduced retirement benefits instead of 4 years. That would result in roughly a 15% increase in your current benefit rate, but the closer you are to your full retirement age of 66 when you become disabled the less difference the SSDI entitlement would make. Any increase in your rate would continue for life, though, so it may be worth filing a claim if you think that you might qualify for SSDI.

Best, Jerry