I am 55, born in 66. Spouse is 60 born in 61. We are legally separated. We were married for 21 years. I contributed to SS for 25 years and now I contribute to Calstrs. In five years (when husband turns 65), my spousal support will run out and I will be $1000/month short. I am trying to determine if I should start to collect my ss benefits from him at that point, or is it better for me to “tighten my belt,” and wait. How do I determine how much I am entitled to? Do I have to wait until I am 62 to draw from his SS? Thank you

Hi. You can't get spousal benefits prior to age 62 unless you have a child in your care who qualifies for child benefits and who's either under age 16 or is disabled. Also, your husband would have to be drawing his benefits for you to be able to collect spousal benefits.

If you start drawing spousal benefits at age 62 your spousal rate will be reduced for age by roughly 35%. And, you can't apply for spousal benefits without also being required to apply for your own Social Security retirement benefits at the same time, and you can only be paid essentially the higher of the two rates. Plus, until you reach full retirement age (FRA) there's a limit on how you can earn and still be paid benefits (https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/retirement/planner/whileworking.html).

Furthermore, if you're drawing a Calstrs pension based on your earnings that were exempt from Social Security taxes, then any spousal benefits for which you'd otherwise qualify will almost certainly be offset by 2/3rds of the amount of your Calstrs pension (https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10007.pdf).

You would need to know your husband's primary insurance amount (PIA) to be able to accurately calculate your spousal benefit options. You probably won't be able to get that exact information from Social Security due to the privacy act, but when you're nearing age 62 they should be able to tell you how much you'd be eligible for at age 62 and at your full retirement age (FRA) so that you can decide when to apply.

You could at least get an estimate of your own Social Security benefit rate using the benefit calculator in our software program, though. You may want to strongly consider using our software (https://maximizemysocialsecurity.com/purchase) to fully analyze the options available to you in order to determine your best strategy for maximizing your benefits.

Best, Jerry