You can check to see if you have worked enough quartiles to qualify for SS on your own - and how that would play out. If you have your own log in to SSA, you can see what pulls up.
I earned enough quartiles with my sunset career. That influenced my decision with taking SS at age 65 (before my DH took SS - he turned 65 a few months before me, and he started his SS a few months before he turned 66) - and for both of us full SS was at 66 and 4 months. My peak earnings were only a few thousand above what you had.
Both of you would be having full SS at age 67.
You would have to look at what your various options are with SS. āYour Social Security Statementā. Details are in that statement, including your earning record - which has years you worked, your taxed social security earnings, and your taxed Medicare Earnings. I had 15 years with no earnings - and the 5 year āsunset careerā paid off on this for me. First wages in 1972 and last wages in 2021.
We donāt ācountā on SS keeping us from running out of money in retirement, but it is nice that it is there. DH actually mentioned āI didnāt realize I receive as much as I do in SSā.
Since you are just turning 62, I would gather some baseline facts.
I waited until I retired, got on Medicare, and turned 65 - which all happened Oct 2021. I carried our health insurance until then rather than go on COBRA when DH retired from his job Nov 2020 - that saved us over $1,000/month in health care costs. I worked enough hours to qualify for the group health insurance.
Your specifics will determine āoptimizingā on SS.
My guess is that OSS wants him to take at 70 to ensure you get the maximum benefit after heās gone, regardless of when that is.
ETA: OpenSS tells me to take today, or any day that I run the scenario. In other words, now, whenever that is. This is whether or not I click on the mortality table option. My parents lived into their 90s so I am planning for that financially as well.
My understanding of this (and itās confusing so I may be wrong) is if your spouse dies before you get to full retirement age and you take the higher benefit then, it would be limited. If you continue to take your smaller benefit until full retirement age, youāll get your spouses full amount at that time. More complicated math!
Throwing it out there that if one is currently divorced, and they were married at least 10 years, and have not remarried, than you are eligible for either your own SS benefit or 50% of the SS benefit of your ex-spouse (capped at the Full Retirement Age amount)āwhichever is greater.
This is naturally tricky to estimate, and you can somewhat piece it together with online calculators knowing what you know of their income whilst married, and if they continued being employed after the divorce you could approximate the subsequent years by entering the last known salary going forward in order to be conservative.
Then you can compare it with your own benefits, which can be looked up online.
A divorced, not remarried, person can also get a more exact number by visiting their local SS office with a copy of their marriage certificate and divorce decree, in order to show the marriage was of at least 10 years in duration.
(A divorced spouse is also possible eligible for SS survivor and/or Medicare credits based on their ex-spouses record if their ex-spouse dies.)
Note: that SS benefits paid to an ex-spouse are both 100% confidential (i.e. the ex-spouse will not know), and they do not affect the payments to the ex-spouse in any way.
Point is you will likely outlive your spouse and can enjoy his SS payment stream as a survivor, so you want to maximize his monthly benefits. Since you are likely to assume his benefits before your own break even point, you want to take money as soon as you are eligible vs waiting 5 years until you are 67 and losing 5 years of SS payments.
Have you looked at Roth conversions during that period between retirement/semi retirement and 75 when you have limited income. This may help to smooth out the tax rate on your IRA/401k as it will reduce your RMDs if you have a large amount in those plans.
This is what has been advised for me. I took SS a couple months after I turned 65. My husband died at 64 and had not claimed. The most I will get is his larger FRA amount when I reach FRA.
My wealthy brother took SS at age 70 because he said it was a great return on his money - but he also did discount the time value of the money coming in if he took it earlier. I am sure he is expecting to live beyond the ābreak evenā point on having taken it at full SS versus waiting until 65.
Again, if she does some calculations and scenarios - If she took it at age 62 versus 65 or FRA, and what point would it have been better to wait assuming spouse is living to at least average life expectancy. W/O doing the calculations, my guess is better to wait until at least 65 w/o the monthly āpenaltyā - and thus more maximizing the money.
We just had this conversation with our financial advisor earlier today. The decision about when to take SS is definitely personal, based on an individualās or coupleās unique circumstances.
Using an online break even calculator, assuming a 4% present value discount rate, the break even age is 84 years and 2 months. That means for the younger spouse, she would need to live past that age and for her older higher benefit spouse to be still alive at that time to ābe aheadā. If I take the discount rate down to 2%, the break even age is 80 years 1 month. Social Security Break Even Calculator - Monthly Income
Itās definitely personal. Thereās the marginal utility of the money and that changes depending on how healthy and active I am. But thereās also a risk analysis element of this as well, in that what if I have expensive health issues later on, or my kids need a lot more help later.
Right - depends on situation. At our first retirment planning class, the instructor said he was planned to defer SS as long as possible. In his case, it was because if his younger wife outlived him (statistically very likely) he wanted her benefit to be as high as possible.
Self insuring seemed to make more sense to me as well when I realized the insurance company gets to decide when you are allowed to use your LTC money and itās only for a limited time. If thatās the case, just start putting your money away earlier or a little more and watch it grow faster than inflation (most years) and cover yourself in old age for way more than 3 to 5 years and you can use it when you want. Itās not even catastrophic insurance so Iām not really seeing the benefit. Anyway, I did go ahead on Monday and ask for a quote for my husband and I just to see what it prices out at and what it covers - I received them this morning and havenāt had a chance to review them. I donāt understand all the terms yet so will need to do a little homework first.
And of course if we understood the how/when of future illnesses, the decision process would be so much easier. We have LTC (employer plan). At this point we will consider letting it lapse if there is a price jump. We are old enough to know that whatever challenges we encounter will not happen at the younger years weāve gone past. And we have a better handle on the nest egg being used to self-insure.
Well, I have not read any of this thread. I will need lots of popcorn. Turning 65 in March (Yes, I know I look much younger ). Lol.
We just sold our businesses (yea!!).
Looking for a financial advisor but trying to see that fees make sense. They seem to be all over the place.. Not taking SS yet.
I know about Bogleheads and such. I know about Fidelity and Schwab accounts etc. We have everything at Merrill until now. What are people basing a financial advisor on? I really need the hand holding and like getting a plan together and setting up all the accounts and then follow said plan. I am not doing day trading or anything like that. I can use all the calculators for when to take social security and how much to convert to Roth and listen to Jill on Money podcast or The Money guyās etc and it all seems reasonable and easy to do butā¦. I would rather have a fee only advisor give me a path forward. I will be doing other thingās so it might not be retirement in the pure sense. Just not doing what I am for the last 38-40 yearās or so.
). Lol.