I am collecting my social security at 62. When I applied I was told I qualify to take my dead ex’s social and let mine wait until my full retirement age . Was this true. ? His is less than mine but because I wanted to leave mine to get a better amount 8% every year .when I’m 66 I was told I could switch. Thank you.

Hi. Yes, it's true that if you're potentially eligible for both your own Social Security retirement benefits and for survivor benefits that you can choose to apply just for the survivor benefit and allow your own benefit rate to keep growing. Your own Social Security retirement benefit amount will continue to increase until age 70 if you choose to wait until then to switch to your own benefits, and it sounds like you may want to strongly consider waiting until then to make the switch. You can switch to your own benefits at any time, but if you start drawing your own benefits prior to age 70 you'll then be stuck with a permanent monthly benefit rate that's lower than what you could have had.

You may want to consider using our software (https://maximizemysocialsecurity.com/purchase) to fully analyze all of your options so you can determine the best strategy for maximizing your benefits.

Best, Jerry