<p>I hate to buy things or books because I don’t have room for them. Except the one I get to reuse often.</p>
<p>I’ve migrated to Kindle for most of my reading, as long as there aren’t many charts, so I no longer have a big clutter of books that I’m “working on” sitting in my bedroom. The clutter on my Kindle is just as bad, but only I get to see it. </p>
<p>Bob, thanks for the links!</p>
<p>I’ve migrated to kindleland also, typing on my second one now (HD)
Have rediscovered my love of reading trashy fiction and not embarrassed at all.
Kids like that they can gift me amazon gift cards for birthdays, christmas instead of another sweater…</p>
<p>I thought of this thread when I saw this …</p>
<p><a href=“Yes, Social Security can cancel your benefit. This is how | PBS NewsHour”>http://www.pbs.org/newshour/making-sense/yes-social-security-can-cancel-your-benefit-this-is-how/</a></p>
<p>I don’t understand the title. How does it cancel your social security? It’s not clear from those questions and answers.</p>
<p>@ixnaybob, perhaps on your recommendation – I don’t recall – I used Maximize My Social Security. There are so many different possible scenarios with SS that I found it worth the $40. It confirmed for me what I thought I already knew, which was very reassuring.</p>
<p>In my case, I will file and suspend my benefits at FRA, which is age 66 (OMG, one month from now – 
). When DH (two years younger than I) is 66, he will file for a spousal benefit. When I am 70, I’ll start taking my benefit, and when DH is 70, he’ll start taking his own benefit. </p>
<p>@VeryHappy, I’m glad that it worked out for you. I know he makes a profit, but I have found Dr. Kotlikoff’s software helpful beyond what it costs. His ESPlanner tells me that I can back off on saving, and I have done so slightly, but I honestly feel better when we continue to save more than we should – who knows, my wife might live to be 130 
But, it’s reassuring to know that it is unlikely that we’ll run out of money before we die, and that we will have something for the kids.</p>
<p>You’re smarter than I am; I couldn’t figure out a complicated strategy without the software, although I wasn’t far off even in my back-of-the-envelope method.</p>
<p>My main concern was missing out on the spousal benefit. I did learn from the software that DH should not file for it until he is FRA. Otherwise his own benefit will be reduced forever. </p>
<p>@Ixnay,I am several years down the road from this, but does a tool like this have the ability to help someone who is divorced and who will have options for filing on ex to figure out the best strategy in terms of deferring and taking spousal benefit until age 70? I’m obviously not going to have access to ex-H’s data.</p>
<p>@2VU0609, I think you’ll have to estimate his benefit. I know that the software handles it, so I thought I’d modify my data to indicate single, but it won’t let me change married to single without deleting a whole bunch of data, and I’m not looking forward to re-entering it. I will say that when I’ve emailed them, they have gotten back to me with detailed answers in a reasonable time, once from Dr. Kotlikoff himself. I know I sound like I work for them, but they are on the top of my list of “value for money” companies.</p>
<p>My guess, and they would know better, is that if your ex has been steadily working, and you expect his income to not markedly change (standard raises and such), you can get a decent idea of his likely benefit. Anyway, from ssa.gov:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I know that you don’t require his cooperation to get the benefit, but I guess that unless he’s helpful, you might not know the optimal strategy. </p>
<p>Thanks. We’ve been divorced for almost 25 years, but I suspect he has been maxing out most of those years. I’ve known that I meet the criteria, but it’s going to be a little more difficult to plan without having all the cards on the table </p>