• What are
  FAVORITES?
  Bookmark any page of our site conveniently in this one area.
  
  Sign In or Register so you can take advantage of all of the features of After Fifty Living

QUESTION:

Husband is 2 yrs, 8 mos younger than I. I am not able to find a job that I can physically do at age 61+. If I begin drawing on my own account in 9 more months, I will get a very small amount and not be able to change to his when he is ready to retire. Also, since I come from a very long lived family, I would like to maximize my amount. He needs to work as long as possible due to us having a house payment for many more years. We could easily meet all our obligations drawing off his full benefit, but that means I can't draw until I am 69. I have been told that he can sign up and start his at age 62, I can sign up and start my spouse benefits, then he can immediately freeze his and continue working and let his benefits accrue. Is this so? Would this help us out?
When and How to Collect?

ASK YOUR MONEY'S ROSEMARIE BOYD ANSWERS:

Dear When and How:

If you retire and collect your benefit you will still have an opportunity for that to change when your husband retires.  Once he retires, Social Security will compare your benefit, which you have collected on your own account, versus that which you would have received under your husband’s account, and give you the greater of the two.

As to the issue of filing and freezing your husband’s benefit, that can only be done at his FULL retirement age.  You should note that this is one of the many things being reviewed by Congress as we speak.

The bottom line is this; given what you have told me about your physical limitations, it might make sense for you to begin collecting your benefit now, knowing that it could be adjusted  when your husband retires.  Thanks for writing.  Rosemarie A. Boyd, CFP

mom81549 Social Security directly told me I may NOT change from drawing off my account to drawing off my husbands that the choice I make when I sign up will be permanent. They did say, however, that if I were receiving disability payments, I could change to drawing from his account. Now I am confused when you are saying the opposite of what Social Security administration says.
Fri Jan 14, 2011, 2:16:35 PM EST

Leave a Comment -

Guidelines: We welcome your thoughts, but for the sake of all visitors to AfterFiftyLiving.com, please refrain from the use of obscenities, personal attacks or slurs. All comments are subject to our terms of use and may be removed. Repeat offenders may lose commenting privileges.