I am 64 and have a FRA of 66 and 6 months. I spent a number of years out of the market due to raising children and caring for parents. My marriage of 30 years ended in 2015. I understand that I can take 1/2 of former spouses amount.
I am in the lower margin of income so 1/2 of spouses will be about $1200 a month. So do you know of any info I am missing? File and suspend does not apply to my situation.
Thanks for the advice

Is there any reason to not have January 1 as your starting date for starting Social Security benefits?
It’s starting in January, would you be entitled to the increase that most people get starting at the beginning of each year?

Larry.

I'm 50, my wife is 43. We have a 5 year old child. My FRA is 67, at which point she will be 60. I would like I to delay filing for social security until 72 to let it max out, and then claim it. At that point, she will be 65, 2 years short FRA. Can she file for early retirement against my earnings, delay filing against her own SS until 72, and then switch over to that to get the max amount?

If my Wife claims her Social Security early at 62 and then claims spousal benefits when I claim at 70 (and she will be 68), will she get 50% of my benefit or a reduced spousal benefit amount because she claimed her social security at 62?

Larry,
I was married for over 17 years. My ex was 80 when he died and he had been taking his social security. There was 22 years difference in our ages. I am currently 61 1/2 born in 1960. He was born in 1938.

I'm 63. My retirement benefit would be approx $2000 a month. I need to file for SS disability as well. Question-CAN I COLLECT MY $2000 while waiting to see if my disability claim is approved. I keep hearing about "reduced social security". What is that? My disability would add an additional $495 a month. I can't live without any income while waiting for disability approval.

Hi Larry,

I have read many of your articles and I am a firm believer of your social security advice. My friend, Dale, is 64 years old. He is not working and his wife passed away many years ago. I advised Dale that he could should apply NOW for reduced survivor benefits on her work record--even though it wouldn't be very much--then switch to his own retirement benefit at age 70 to receive maximum DRC's.

Please help! I was under the impression that as a divorced disabled spouse about to enter full retirement age I could get half of my ex-spouses social security and let mine grow 8% a year for the next several years. From AARP article:"There is one more exception to deemed filing for divorced spouses. Regardless of when you were born you can file a restricted application if you are entitled to Social Security disability payments." I called social security and they said this was not true. I was married for 20 years and my full social security is less than half of my ex-husbands'.

My husband passed away in 2004. I am going to retire in 2022. Can I freeze my SS and collect his until I turn 66 1/2.

Thank you

Hi Larry, I’m 58 and plan to retire at 70 or later. My wife is 61 and will be eligible to receive some benefits obviously next year at 62. My wife has not worked on a job very much and would only receive $237.00 or so a month. Can she retire at 62 and get that money and later get half of what I make when I retire? Or should she wait until I retire? We’re not sure how this works. Thanks Larry