Larry I am 68, and plan to work until 70. At 70, my projected SS benefit is $3450 p/month. My wife is 63 and her FRA is $1020 p/month. Is there any benefit to my wife filing "early" when I file at 70? Thanks.
Mark

Hi Mark,

Dob 10/1952 wife dob 10/1957 She is 62 and me 67 as of october. I have been collecting for 1 year. Getting about 2800/m. She can start collecting this month and will get about 1700. My questions: can i and should i suspend my benefits until 70? and should my wife start collecting and can i get spousal benefit once she starts?

I still work and earn about 70 per hour. she is a real estate agent and the income is not necessarily stable.. We do need to extra income to clean up some stuff over thr next 2-3 years.

Hi,

I was born in 1952, and am considering applying for my social security benefits in January 2020. I will continue working full time. My husband was born in 1956 and also works full time. I am trying to figure out how to maximize our benefits -- that is, get the most money per month if one of us filed in January 2020 for benefits. A few questions:

How do you calculate the break even point/ payback analysis in deciding whether to claim SS under my own record at FRA of 66 or spousal benefit and then claiming my benefit at age 70? I will be 66 in December 2019. Per the SS rep, I would receive 1542 on my own record and 1307 would be the spousal amount. My husband’s health ( he is 76) is currently OK but he does have a few potential health issues.

Hi,

I understand that a widowed spouse (in my case, the wife, age 61) can file a restricted application to only collect her widow benefits and allow her own benefits to grow. However, because her benefits are considerably lower than he deceased husband's benefits, she wants to know if she can restrict her application to just her benefits and then at her FRA switch to her unreduced husband's benefits (which will be his amount when he passed away). Thank-you.

Hi,

I'm 69 waiting for 70 to take my benefit, my wife will be 62 in Nov should she take hers then(about $800)

Hi,

I began taking Social Security in 2016 at age 62 and receive about $530/mo. The agent used Break Even figures to advise that it would not benefit me to wait until FRA due to the low amount it would increase (I stayed home to raise children for 30+ years). My husband just lost his job and will turn 68 in October 2019. We were hoping to hold off till he turns 70, but not sure we can. He is planning to claim his Spousal Benefit so at least that bit will help (our accountant also said he should request it be retroactive to January 2019).

Hi Larry,

My spouse is affected by WEP as a retired teacher, and we're trying to find the right claiming strategy. I'm not confident my research from the recommended websites and the GWY book is yielding the optimum approach.

Me - retired with non WEP affected pension - planning to claim SS next year for a DEC 2020 70th birthday - excellent health with family longevity history. I have the greater earnings history and benefit estimates.

I will turn 62 10/10/2020. My husband is a resident alien in the US over 25 years and contributing to his SS. He is also 7 years younger than I am. I have not worked the last 4 years due to my husband being ill. He has continued to work from home. He has a disease that will unfortunately not allow him to live to retirement or perhaps not even to 60. Without his income I will either have to go back to work, move to a less expensive dwelling and many other issues. We’re contemplating me claiming my retirement next year and using the money to pay off the home.

Thanks, Larry I am 68 and my wife is 65. We had an analysis done back in 2017 by a local planner and the strategy was for my wife to file for her retirement and mine would be a restricted amount with the plan of waiting until 70. When the analysis was done, my intention was to continue working until 70, but because my health has declined I'm now only able to work part time. So, my question is, is it still worth it financially to hold out till 70 or would it now make more sense to take my full amount? Thanks again!

Hi,