Relationships Talk

I will be almost 85. What advice do you have for me?

A: Well, I hope your young husband was worth it in other ways! Because he is totally worthless to you from a Social Security perspective, at least for a long time to come. So I’ve got two bits of advice.

First, you could stick pins in a voodoo doll representing your ex and wish him bad luck in the health department. Or you could marry the first old goat you can find. Better yet, make that an old goat with one of his hooves already halfway in the grave! Now let me explain.

Usually a wife can’t get benefits on her husband’s Social Security record until he is getting benefits himself. If that is what the Social Security people told you, they were a little bit off because the law gives a bit of a break to divorced women. You don’t have to wait until he is collecting benefits. You can get spousal benefits on his account as soon as he is old enough for Social Security. And that would be age 62. But that is still a long way off. So again, you can forget about getting any of his Social Security unless …

Unless what you may wonder? Unless he dies. Then you would be due widow’s benefits immediately. That’s why I suggested the voodoo doll. But if you’re a nice person and don’t want to wish your ex any ill will, then we can move on to my second bit of advice — the old goat!

If you remarry, you could get spousal benefits from your new husband — assuming you don’t make the same mistake again and marry a younger guy. That’s why I suggested the old goat — someone who is already getting Social Security. You would have to wait a year to get benefits on his record. (The law says you must be married for 12 months to qualify for spousal benefits.) But that sure is better than waiting for 13 more years until your first husband turns age 62.

And if you happen to find an old goat with health problems, then you’d qualify for much higher widow’s benefits after he dies. (A spousal rate is capped at 50 percent, whereas a widow can get up to 100 percent of her husband’s Social Security.)

The advantage to being an unmarried widow is that when your rich first husband turns 62, you might be due divorced wife’s benefits on his account if they exceed whatever you are getting from husband No. 2. And you certainly would get higher widow’s benefits on his record if he should happen to die before you do.

Having given you those ideas (with my tongue planted firmly in my cheek), you could go out and find a nice healthy young man and marry for love. But look where that got you the first time around!

Q: I am about to turn 66 and am trying to decide what to do with my Social Security. I hope you can help.

My husband is 68. He started his benefits at 66 and gets $2,178 per month. My projected full benefit is much less — only about $400. Friends have told me that I should delay starting my Social Security until I’m 70. And they told me I could take benefits on his record in the meantime. Do you think I should do that?

A: Because your benefit amount is so low compared to your husband’s rate, there is no need for you to wait until age 70 for anything. Or to put that another way, your own benefit amount, even at age 70 with the extra 32 percent in “delayed retirement credits” you would get for waiting until that age to file, will never exceed what you are due in spousal benefits.

Let’s look at the numbers. You said he was getting $2,178. At age 66, you’d be due a spousal benefit equal to 50 percent of that, or $1,089. If you waited until age 70 to file for your own Social Security, you’d get $400 plus an extra 32 percent, or about $528. That’s way less than the $1,089 you are due in spousal benefits.

So here is what you will do. At age 66, you will file for your own $400 Social Security check. (The law says if you are due any benefits on your own record, you must file for them.) Then at the same time, you will file for wife’s benefits on your husband’s record. You will get $689 in spousal benefits, which added to your own $400, will take you up to the full $1,089 that you are due.

Q: My wife is about to turn 62. She is thinking of starting her small Social Security check now. I plan to wait until I am 70 to file for my Social Security. That will be in 2021.

Because we file a joint tax return, I am worried that if my wife takes her Social Security now, then that will jeopardize my ability to get maximum benefits when I am 70. Is that something I should be concerned about?

A: It is absolutely nothing to be concerned about. How you file a tax return has nothing to do with your eligibility for Social Security benefits.

Q: I was planning to wait until I am 70 to start my Social Security. But a friend told me I should start my benefits as soon as possible (I’m 64) because I have two daughters in college who could get Social Security checks on my record if I sign up now. Is that true?

A: It’s not true. Benefits to dependent children end when they are 18 years old. I’m assuming both your college-age daughters are over that benchmark, so they aren’t due anything from your Social Security record. In other words, don’t include your daughters in your Social Security planning.