I’m still full time employed. My husband is retired .should I have applied for spousal benefits.? What are the benefits of spousal benefits.

Hi. I can't answer that without more information. First of all you don't mention your age, so I don't even know if you're old enough to qualify for spousal benefits. Also, if you were born after January 1 1954, you couldn't apply for spousal benefits without being required to file for your own benefits at the same time. And, in that case you wouldn't qualify for spousal benefits unless your primary insurance amount (PIA) is less than half as much as your spouse's PIA. A person's PIA is equal to their Social Security retirement benefit rate if they start drawing their benefits at full retirement age (FRA).

Furthermore, if you're working and if you're still under full retirement age (FRA) then your benefits could be subject to full or partial withholding due to Social Security's earnings test (https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/retirement/planner/whileworking.html).

However, if you were born prior to January 2 1954 and if you're between FRA and age 70 then you could potentially file just for spousal benefits only while allowing your own benefit rate to grow until age 70. Your best filing strategy depends on a number of different factors, so you should strongly consider using our software (https://maximizemysocialsecurity.com/purchase) to fully analyze all of your options so that you can determine your best strategy for maximizing your benefits.

Best, Jerry