I'm 62 and my wife is 61. I'm still working full-time, and plan to do so until I hit my retirement age of 67. After that, we'll see. I will probably still work part-time somewhere.

My wife doesn't work anymore by our mutual choice. She is a housewife and grandma on call for babysitting. I wonder if she should start drawing SS when she turns 62? Hers wouldn't be much, because she hasn't worked as long as me nor at my salary level either.

I mentioned this to her and she wasn't convinced that it was doable.

quote:

Originally posted by Glynn863:
I'm 62 and my wife is 61. I'm still working full-time, and plan to do so until I hit my retirement age of 67. After that, we'll see. I will probably still work part-time somewhere.

My wife doesn't work anymore by our mutual choice. She is a housewife and grandma on call for babysitting. I wonder if she should start drawing SS when she turns 62? Hers wouldn't be much, because she hasn't worked as long as me nor at my salary level either.

I mentioned this to her and she wasn't convinced that it was doable.

My wife does not have enough points for SS since she has been at home since we got married. She raised my daughter and takes care of the house, cleans, washes, has food ready for me. Anyway, she will get half of mine at 67 so we will wait for that. Don’t know all the rules but I think she would get more getting half of yours at 67 (that is the age for us, your may be different since you are a little older).

Several reasons to take SS at 62 as I did. The fella's in my family seem to die relatively young.

Also my wife's "windfall" retirement package makes her ineligible for her portion should I tip over early.

Now that I am 65 and officially retired I have been considering this decision a lot lately. Didn't start at 62 due to still working (albeit on disability insurance) and didn't want to pay the taxes on it and figured waiting until at least 65 was the way to go.

Now that I am 65 I am still going to wait and perhaps have my wife start hers either next year, which should be her last year of work, or 2017 when she is also retired. Either way I will wait until my full benefit age of 67.

Depending on how things go in 2027 I may go ahead and defer until 70 so that she would get the largest survivor benefit possible from SS.

We will have to reduce our spending next year significantly but have a plan in place to cover us until we start the SS benefits and beyond.

It's definitely a personal decision that everybody has to carefully consider, and then make the best choice they can for themselves and their family. I'm betting that we can get by without it for a couple more years and that my wife will significantly out live me, so I'm going to defer for now.

quote:

Originally posted by Sigfan Roy:

Depending on how things go in 2027 I may go ahead and defer until 70 so that she would get the largest survivor benefit possible from SS.

We will have to reduce our spending next year significantly but have a plan in place to cover us until we start the SS benefits and beyond.

It's definitely a personal decision that everybody has to carefully consider

Yes, it is a personal decision that nobody else can make. I do want to bring up, though, that imho it is better to enjoy experiences with your spouse while you're both in the best health you're likely to have for the rest of your lives, rather than scrimp now so that potentially in the future one of you might have more income.

You didn't say that you would be foregoing things you want to do, so my comment is more generic. I have known people who have done things like take no vacation so that they can "retire" 6 months early, but then they don't live that long. One guy did that with the reasoning that a lot of men die within 6 months of retirement, and his family history put him at risk of that. So his wife would get a year's salary as his life insurance if he were still employed when he died. They basically took zero vacation for many years.

Re: survivor's benefits. I am not sure a survivor's benefit depends on when the deceased started taking SS. Does it increase if the deceased had waited to start until after their full retirement age? IDK. It is a bit complicated and needs good research before making decisions based on assumptions.

I applied for SS and Medicare to start March, 2026 when I retire. I’ll be 65 and since I’ve been fighting two cancers for 4 years, I’m not waiting until 70 to get my full amount.

With my pension and SS coupled with my wife’s SS, we’ll be okay. House is paid off, car is paid off…..so we’re good.

Went and talked to an agent today for supplemental plan for Medicare along with drug plan.

quote:

Originally posted by Glynn863:
I'm 62 and my wife is 61. I'm still working full-time, and plan to do so until I hit my retirement age of 67. After that, we'll see. I will probably still work part-time somewhere.

My wife doesn't work anymore by our mutual choice. She is a housewife and grandma on call for babysitting. I wonder if she should start drawing SS when she turns 62? Hers wouldn't be much, because she hasn't worked as long as me nor at my salary level either.

I mentioned this to her and she wasn't convinced that it was doable.

This is where I messed up and hopefully my lesson can make you more money. Open up online accounts for you and your wife at social security.gov. You each can see what you’ll get at different ages.

My wife’s full retirement age benefit was exactly half of my FRA benefits. Remember that break even point where if you take at 62 then you start losing money at a later age? Had I thought more, I would have let my wife start taking hers at age 62 even at the reduced benefit then when I start taking mine, she jumps up to half my benefit which was her FRA amount so she never would reach a break even point. It would have been all “free money.”

If only I knew someone then who knows as much as I do now. Hence my interest in these retirement/social security threads.

quote:

Originally posted by Fly-Sig:

quote:

Originally posted by Sigfan Roy:

Depending on how things go in 2027 I may go ahead and defer until 70 so that she would get the largest survivor benefit possible from SS.

We will have to reduce our spending next year significantly but have a plan in place to cover us until we start the SS benefits and beyond.

It's definitely a personal decision that everybody has to carefully consider

Re: survivor's benefits. I am not sure a survivor's benefit depends on when the deceased started taking SS. Does it increase if the deceased had waited to start until after their full retirement age? IDK. It is a bit complicated and needs good research before making decisions based on assumptions.

Fed161 would be the expert on this topic.

From my research, the surviving spouse is only eligible for the higher amount of their benefit or the Full Retirement Age benefit of the deceased. The survivors benefit doesn’t increase if the deceased waited past FRA before drawing benefits.

The one instance you can bump up the survivor’s benefit is if the survivor starts taking survivors benefits before applying for their own. They can continue drawing survivors benefits until age 70 and switch to their own if that amount is higher.

Link

I turn 65 in 3 weeks. I'd like to last till 67, but I don't think my body will allow it. My knees are starting to go. Been fighting the left one for about a year now. The right one is beginning to join the chorus.

PR64,

The breakeven between taking SS at 62 vs. 67 is 78.5 years of age. Look at your family history, lifestyle habits and overall health. The average lift expectancy for a US Male ranges between 75.4 to 78.5 years of age, depending on what studies you want to follow.

I'll hit 62 next year. I wont really need the money so my current plan is to start taking SS at 62 and directly investing it all in SPY and QQQ etf's every month. I think as long as the Republicans maintain power I should have over 100 grand when I hit 67 which should put me well above the wait to full retirement plan.

I took mine at full retirement age, 66 and 4 months. I did the calculations for each year until 70. Waiting to 70 would have gotten me a few hundred more but I wasn’t willing to bet I’d make it to 70, I did, or that the money would still be there. Also, the money I would forego by waiting to 70 would take me until 85 to recoup. Didn’t want to make that bet.
The wife just started taking hers at full retirement age.
Both of us are still employed and the gov would have hammered us good if we took it early.

I’m retiring from Federal civil service next November (2026), when I turn 62 with over 20 years of Federal service. I’m planning to start SS in March of 2027.

My wife retired in Dec 2024 at age 64 and started her SS in Feb of 2025. She had applied in Dec, but chose to start her payments in Feb, so there was no delay except by choice.