Hello! I have the book but cannot seem to find an answer to this: My full retirement age is 66 and 2 months, however I plan on working until I turn 70.. I had a long term first marriage and divorced after 13 years. Shortly after the divorce my first husband died. I know I can collect his retirement at age 66.2 but will collecting have a negative affect on my retirement I will collect at 70?

Please note: I waited and remarried at age 63 because of the "rules". When I take retirement at 70 my younger husband will have to wait 2 years to collect half of what I have. (He has been self employed and really never paid into social security.) We will hopefully be collecting 1 plus 1/2 of my retirement for the next 10, 20 or 30 years so I do not want to mess this up.

Hi,

No, drawing Social Security survivor benefits from your ex-spouse's record would have no adverse effect on your own Social Security retirement benefit rate. You can't draw both benefits at the same time, but you could collect one of the benefits first and then switch to receiving the higher benefit later.

Your current husband could potentially collect spousal benefits if and when you start drawing your Social Security retirement benefits, but he'd need to be at least age 62 or have a child in care who is under age 16 or disabled and who qualifies for benefits on your record. If your husband files for spousal benefits at full retirement age (FRA) or later he could be paid up to 50% of your primary insurance amount (PIA), assuming that he's not eligible for higher benefits on his own record. A person's PIA is equal to their Social Security retirement benefit rate if they start drawing their benefits at full retirement age (FRA). However, unless your husband has an eligible child in care if he starts drawing prior to FRA his benefit rate will be reduced for age.

Your best filing strategy depends on the relative amounts of your survivor rate vs. your own rate, and how much you'll be earning prior to FRA. Usually it's best to start drawing the lower benefit as soon as possible and then switch to the higher benefit when it reaches it's highest rate, but the fact that your current husband may be able to collect spousal benefits could also factor into your decision making. Our software (https://maximizemysocialsecurity.com/purchase) could help sort all of this out for you so that you can determine the best strategy for maximizing your benefits.

Best, Jerry