Hello all. I recently read in a somewhat outdated book about retirement that claiming half of the higher earning spouse’s social security is capped at their full retirement age amount, which for us is 66 & 4 months. I have already claimed mine and was planning to switch over to half of my husband’s when he claims at 70, which is of course, a higher amount than that at 66 & 4 months. I couldn’t find this information anywhere and thought that someone here might either know the answer or direct me to a source that has the answer to my question. Thanks in advance.
Spousal rate is half of the spouse’s PIA, which is the amount they would receive at full retirement age. The amount can be lowered due to claiming before your own full retirement age, WEP or GPO offsets. They do not include delayed retirement credits that the spouse jas earned. Spousal benefits are not in addition to your own benefit; essentially you receive the higher of your or your spouse’s benefits.
Survivor benefits, on the other hand do include any delayed retirement credits that had been earned up until the date of death.
Maximize My Social Security has an excellent website, and its Ask Larry section is very responsive in answering questions. Thhey sell a program that can provode you with different scenarios so that you can knowledgeably decide when to collect.
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Another popular social security calculator is the free site opensocialsecurity.com. Has anyone had the opportunity to compare the two sites?
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I ran a plan on Maximizemysocialsecurity.com and it directed my wife to take hers now and then re-file and claim 1/2 of my benefits after I start at age 70.
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