My husband was 63 in oct and i will be 57 in Feb. We have both retired from nc public schools with a pension. He retired two years ago and i just retired in July 2017. I made $500 more a month than he did because i was a administrstor. We have retirement account funds so we can easily wait to file for social security at 66, but my husband has had two strokes in the past few years (they sffected balance and problem solving) and had to have his prostate removed after a diagnosis of prostate cancer (it was not in the lymph nodes and hopefully is gone now) His mother lived to 84 and his father is still living at 89. My parents are still living and my grandparents lived into the 80s and 90
If my husband were to die, would I be better off financially for him to go ahead and start drawing social security now so we can enjoy that money traveling while he is still alive or would my widows benefits be higher if he does not file before he were to die? I thought you would need all of these details to answer the question

Thanks.

Hi,

I'm sorry to hear about your husband's health issues.

If your husband could qualify for disability benefits, he should probably file for those benefits now. Drawing Social Security disability (SSDI) benefits is essentially the same as starting your full retirement age benefit early.

You don't mention whether or not you and your husband paid Social Security taxes, but if you didn't it could affect your Social Security benefit rates (https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10045.pdf) and could also affect whether or not your husband would be insured for SSDI benefits.

If your husband takes reduced retirement benefits before his full retirement age (FRA), his benefit rate will be reduced for age and that reduction could carry over to your potential widow's rate. But, if you're already drawing your retirement benefits at the time of your husband's death, you could only draw the higher or his benefit rate or your own rate anyway. I'm unable to tell you an absolute best strategy, because there are too many unknown variables involved (e.g. benefit rates, lifespans, etc.), and when to start drawing benefits is a personal decision that you need to base in part upon your individual preferences.

You and your husband should strongly consider using the maximization software available on this website to explore all of your filing options and determine your best overall filing strategy.

Best, Jerry