Hi,
My husband has been challenged with serious health problems and had begun withdrawing SS benefits at age 62, 4 years ago. He's 6.5 years older than me and I'd like to retire now, at age 60. If I don't contribute to SS over the next 2 years. I used the SS benefits calculator and it shows a benefit that shows " if I work until age 62, 66.7 & 70 years of age " amounts to be paid. My question is: will my benefit be reduced from the figure that the SS calculator if I don't contribute for the next 2 years? Thanks

Hi,

I'm sorry to hear about your husband health problems.

The answer to your question depends on whether or not the estimated amounts that you received from Social Security's calculator included projected future earnings. If they do and those earnings don't occur because you retire early, then the estimates may be too high. Otherwise, if the estimates are based only on your actual earnings to date then they should be fairly accurate.

Exact retirement benefit rates can't be calculated until shortly prior to the year in which a person turns age 62. This is due to the indexing of earnings that Social Security uses in their benefit calculations (https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10070-1954.pdf). Therefore, any retirement benefit estimate that you receive at age 60 is just that, an estimate. We believe that you can obtain the most accurate possible retirement benefit estimates by using our maximization software, so you may want to try using that for your planning.

Best, Jerry