I have 24 years with our local school district. I am 60 years old and hope to retire sometime between the age of 63 and 65, My husband is 70 yrs old and is receiving 2834 in Soc sec. I worked for approximately 10 years in the business sector before working with the school district, near as I can figure I "might" get $100 a month because of the WEP. Also I understand that if my husband passes away I cannot collect any widow's benefits. My boss was telling me that at 62 I should go file for my social security so that I could at least start getting that. I'm not sure how much that would be if I file before I retire from the school district.

Hi. My answer assumes that your earnings from the school district are exempt from Social Security taxes. If so, it's true that your Social Security benefit rate wouldn't be subject to a reduction caused by the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) until you start drawing your pension from the school system. However, even without a WEP related reduction to your benefit rate, if you file for Social Security benefits prior to your full retirement age (FRA) there is a limit on how much you could earn and still be paid benefits (https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/retirement/planner/whileworking.html). So, whether or not you could actually be paid any benefits if you apply at age 62 depends on how much you'll be earning.

The bottom line is that your best filing strategy depends on numerous different variables, so you should strongly consider using our software (https://maximizemysocialsecurity.com/purchase) to fully analyze and compare all of your various options so that you can determine the best possible strategy for maximizing your benefits.

Best, Jerry