“I’d better get my share before Social Security goes bust and there’s nothing left.” This belief strikes a chord with some people. After all, you’ve been hearing doom and gloom about Social Security for years. But as a strategy for collecting your benefits, it’s a bad idea. Most proposed reforms would not hit retirees or near retirees. When Congress voted in 1983 to raise the full retirement age, for example, the impact came far in the future, affecting people who reached full retirement age in 2000 and beyond.
Things turned out differently than either Eager Edgar or Steady Betty planned. The point is that you can’t be sure how long you’ll live. When you’re deciding when to begin collecting Social Security, keep different possibilities in mind and consider the implications for your standard of living and sense of well-being.
Considering Your Spouse When You Claim Social Security
Earlier in this chapter, I focus on how timing your collection of Social Security affects your own bottom line. But the issue of timing is even bigger than that. You and your spouse could face decisions on when to collect benefits that could affect your household for many years. I’m talking about benefits that go to a dependent spouse, based on a breadwinner’s work record, and benefits that go to a survivor after the breadwinner dies. Women are more vulnerable than men to poverty in old age, so these decisions may be of great consequence to many wives, but the same principle applies to everyone: Choices on when to begin Social Security benefits could have a lasting impact on you and your spouse’s financial well-being.
If you’re eligible for Social Security as a dependent spouse, you face a real choice about when to begin benefits. You may claim this benefit if you have reached 62 and your partner has begun collecting retirement benefits. But your own spousal benefit is reduced for each month you claim it before you’ve reached your own full retirement age. At your own full retirement age, your spousal benefit can be 50 percent of the breadwinner’s full retirement benefit. But if you don’t wait, and you claim it as early as 62, it’s reduced significantly.
By the way, if you’ve established your own earnings record with Social Security, that could change things. In that case, your payment is the greater of the benefit you’ve earned yourself or the amount you qualify for as a dependent spouse.
For workers with a full retirement age of 67, claiming the spousal benefit early reduces benefits by as much as 17.5 percent for those claiming at 62 to a little over 4 percent for those claiming at 66. Suppose your spouse has begun collecting his or her full retirement benefit of $1,000 per month. If you wait until you reach your full retirement age of 67, you get $500 per month in spousal benefits. If you start as soon as possible, at 62, you get about $325. You can get more details on what the spousal benefit means to you, and how your amount is affected by when you claim it, at www.ssa.gov/oact/quickcalc/spouse.html.
Table 3-3 shows the monthly reductions that affect spousal benefits taken by a dependent spouse before reaching full retirement age. It also shows that the monthly reductions differ, based on year of birth.
Your decision about when to collect benefits also has a major effect on the amount of Social Security you leave behind for a surviving widow or widower. If you die, your spouse (at his or her full retirement age) can get 100 percent of your benefit. That means the bigger a benefit you wait to receive, the more you leave your surviving spouse. You could look at it this way: A retirement benefit you claim at 70 is 76 percent more than what you get if you start at 62. That much larger benefit is what you could leave a surviving spouse, who may rely on it for a long time.
Widows and widowers also face timing decisions. They can collect their survivor benefit as early as 60, but with a substantial reduction. (I’m speaking here about aged widows and widowers who are not disabled or raising children — factors that allow for earlier eligibility.) Generally, it will cost the surviving spouse about 30 percent of the benefit to take it at 60, when compared to waiting until full retirement age.
www.ssa.gov/pubs/10084.html.
TABLE 3-3 Primary and Spousal Benefits at Age 62*
| Primary | Spouse | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year of Birth | Normal or Full Retirement Age | Number of Reduction Months | Amount | Reduction | Amount | Reduction |
| 1937 or earlier | 65 years | 36 | $800 | 20% | $375 | 25% |
| 1938 | 65 years and 2 months | 38 | $791 | 20.83% | $370 | 25.83% |
| 1939 | 65 years and 4 months | 40 | $783 | 21.67% | $366 | 26.67% |
| 1940 | 65 years and 6 months | 42 | $775 |
22.5%
|