My husband filed at 62, and both our children were minors who received benefits until they turned 18.
I’ve had an online Social Security account for a number of years and got periodic statements. I applied online for Social Security benefits in January and had no problems. I followed up by checking my online account for updates and got approved and received my first check the second Wednesday of March and then ever since. The whole process was very easy for me.
I applied online and it was easy peasy. But I have no record of the password info…so I can’t get back into my account online. Guess I’ll call…
I think I have an online account, but went in to talk to the staff when I was setting up Medicare A but not B, and not yet filing for Social Security.
@thumper1 and @jym626, how do you get your annual statement? I was getting mine by USPS, but now that I have an online account, I’m supposed to access it online. If you get yours online, I think it means you must have a username/password.
@frazzled1 I don’t get an annual SS statement anymore because I’m collecting SS.
I know we got a paper statement in 2018. Haven’t seen one yet this year. I do have an online account. But needed to go in to be sure I was setting up Medicare A and not B correctly so I am never at risk for that lifetime penalty when I go on B. They told me I will have to come in when the time comes. Won’t be able to do it on line.
Waiting only means higher SS payments. If SS will be the primary source of retirement income, waiting for the higher payout makes sense. Depending on how SS fits into your retirement finances and strategies, there are many nuances to consider regarding the timing of withdrawals. Calculators are fine as a place to start, but a good accountant or tax attorney will be able to apply your specific financial context to that raw information. In our case, we will take both early (but not 62) because our combined SS payments are more than we need to cover our current lifestyle and mean that we don’t need to touch our retirement portfolio if we don’t want to. Allowing the portfolio to continue to grow with no to minimal withdrawals beats the incremental returns of waiting for slightly higher SS payments later. We do plan to spend the portfolio, but the growth and tax benefits of taking SS early make the most financial sense for us.
@maya54 I played around with that calculator and put in a situation similar to yours as described by you: Married couple 1 yr apart in age, older spouse gets slightly higher full retirement benefit. I got the same result. Calculator says best strategy is for lower earning spouse to file at 62 and 1 month and older higher earning spouse to wait until age 70.
This calculator (unlike many of the online calculators) uses an interest rate to discount the future cash flows. I don’t know what interest rate they use. I am not sure if they disclose it somewhere. But discounting cash flows means getting money sooner is better, so the payments received from age 62 - 70 are worth more than the higher payments you would receive by waiting. I think this is a better way to look at this decision, to use a nonzero interest rate to value future cash flows. There are still other things to consider, like taxes, if you continue to work, if you have minor children, but I think discounting future cash flows is a step in the right direction, and it does tilt the decision towards filing sooner rather than waiting. Oh, and don’t ask me why the best strategy is only one person filing early. Why not both file early? The calculator says that is worth a lot less. I don’t know why.
The SSA web site has a downloadable detailed calculator. It is cumbersome to install and use. I could not figure out how make it show surviving spouse benefits. but it can show worker’s SSI under different scenarios.
https://www.ssa.gov/OACT/anypia/anypia.html
I used maximizemysocialsecurity.com (it cost $40) and was very happy with the result.
The decision when to file also depends on your life expectancy. If you expect to live beyond, I believe, 83 or 84, then waiting makes sense. If not, then filing early makes sense.
Hmm, I am 6 months older than my husband, and I put in the exact same earnings for both of us. They recommended I wait till 70 and he file at 62 and one month. Not sure if they chose me to wait because I’m female and theoretically have a longer life span, or because I’m a bit older.
I think another huge factor is whether you (or spouse) is continuing to work or earn income. Particularly if considering taking SS before reaching full retirement age.
See: https://www.ssa.gov/planners/retire/whileworking.html
I have fairly modest earnings compared to many on CC, but it’s not rocket science for me to figure out that if I retired now (at age 65), not only would my payments be set lower, but I’d end up having to pay half of it back because I’m losing 50% of every dollar earned over the $17.6 K limit.
And when I hit age 66 (my full retirement age) – there’s no longer a limit on earnings – but the benefits are still taxable. Depending on level of earnings, up to 85% of the SS benefit is taxable – and of course, the SS benefit might also push the taxpayer into a higher marginal bracket. So you need to look at more than simply the lifetime value of the benefit (discounted or otherwise) – you need to factor in how much you’ll be paying back in taxes The higher your current income & benefit amount, the bigger the tax hit.
^^It’s because you are older.
Have any of you been to one of the free SS seminars? Yes, they are financial planning sales pitches, but I went to one at our library and thought it was pretty helpful in determining the benefits. I had a question for my brother who turned 62 but has twin 13 year olds. If he retired, they’d get benefits for 5 years. In the olden days he could have ‘filed and suspended’ but that option isn’t available anymore.
They also had a lot of info about filing under spouse’s account and even how to do it if you were divorced and claiming under an ex-spouse’s account.
I have a friend who started collecting SS when she was 68 and still had a minor child. She made a lot of money during the year she turned 69, and her benefit and her daughter’s both went up considerably.
Yes, I just missed the cutoff on that (born in 1954) — but for that, I would have gone the route of filing a restricted application on my ex-husband’s account. That had always been my plan until the law was changed to eliminate that option.
I’m a big fan of opensocialsecurity.com, which is free. Use the Advanced tab and you can change the longevity tables by spouse. Also, you can obtain a similar result to ‘maximize’ by playing with the discount rate.
In addition to your own life expectancy, a spouse’s life expectancy is also a factor. The odds are greater that one of a couple will hit 90, than that odds are of just the individual alone.
Guess it’s time to pull out the calculators. H is older than I by 6 months. I’ve had the higher salary for years; he’s retired but I’m still working. If taking his benefit pushes us into a different tax bracket, that’s a problem. And why take it if it’s all just going to be taxed anyway?
Hmmm.
DH turned 701/2 and started taking his (minuscule-as former Fed) SS. I am still working. When I turned 66 calculators said to take spousal (even smaller) SS. Did it easily on line but now it will no longer calculate my regular benefits that I plan to take when I turn 70. Annoying.
^I am experiencing the same thing! I want to know my own SS benefits and because I am receiving spousal I cannot see it on line. Frustrating and why? Why can’t I access my own information?