Widows benefit. The max income you can earn is $17,040.00. I make more than that but I want to receive the benefit checks up untill I reach that gross income amount. Then stop receiving the checks each year to avoid taxes & affecting my future benefit. So basically I would only collect about 6 months every year starting at age 60. Can you let me know if I can do it that way? I would of course talk to SS to go over each avenue available to see if waiting to collect would be that much more beneficial. Thank you.

Hi,

What you've described isn't how the earnings test works (https://www.ssa.gov/planners/retire/whileworking.html). You wouldn't simply draw benefits until you hit the yearly limit and then stop getting benefits after that. Instead, Social Security would ask you how much you intend to earn for the calendar year, and if it's more than the exempt amount they wouldn't pay you any benefits for as long as it takes to withhold $1 of your benefits for each $2 that you expect to earn in excess of that year's exempt amount. That process would then repeat itself in subsequent years until you reach full retirement age. The number of months of benefits that would need to be withheld depends on the person's benefit rate and the amount of their excess earnings.

For example, say Jane files for survivor benefits when she turns age 60 in January 2018. Jane is still working and plans to earn $35040 in 2018. So, in Jane's case Social Security would withhold $9000 of her benefits in 2018 (i.e. ($35040 - $17040)/2). If Jane's monthly benefit rate was $900, that would mean that Social Security would withhold her benefits for the first 10 months of the year, and then pay her for the last 2 months.

Before filing, you should strongly consider using our maximization software to explore and compare your options so that you can make the best possible choice.

Best, Jerry