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It's early and I'm not firing on all cylinders so maybe my question is explained here. But I'll ask anyway as you seem to have a pretty good grasp on this.
My wife is 2 years older than I am. She worked but not full time so her benefits are almost exactly half of mine. But being 2 years older she obviously is eligible to collect 2 years sooner than I am. My plan is to wait as long as possible to file but with an iffy job situation I just don't know what the future holds.
So here is my question: If she files on her own at say 62 and I wait till 66 1/2 (my FRA) can she later files to gain the difference between her benefit and 1/2 of mine as you have described? Would anything change should I be forced to file at say 63 due to circumstances?
when you file and suspend or just file for your ss she will get a raise if 1/2 your full is more than her own.
they will take 1/2 your full ,subtract her full and add the difference to her benefit.
at your fra you can have two choices if you want to let yours grow to 70.
you can file and suspend and she gets a bump up . or you can file a restricted application for 1/2 hers ,let yours grow and she does not get a bump up yet.
in the first case there is one check coming in and in the 2nd case 2 checks coming in but no bump upward since technically in selective application you have not filed yet for yours.
when you file and suspend or just file for your ss she will get a raise if 1/2 your full is more than her own.
they will take 1/2 your full ,subtract her full and add the difference to her benefit.
at your fra you can have two choices if you want to let yours grow to 70.
you can file and suspend and she gets a bump up . or you can file a restricted application for 1/2 hers ,let yours grow and she does not get a bump up yet.
in the first case there is one check coming in and in the 2nd case 2 checks coming in but no bump upward since technically in selective application you have not filed yet for yours.
you have to see which is more .
Thanks, knew you would have the answer. So seeing as she is 2 years older than I am, and using the first scenario, I don't see any reason for her not to file at 62. She can start collecting 2 years before drawing effectively the same check 2 years later should I file at 62 as well. If I hold off on filing, which is the plan but you never know what the future holds, then she could continue to draw off of her filing until I file, then her 1/2 of my benefit would be larger than the check she has been drawing from age 62.. In either scenario she would not be penalized for drawing off of her own benefit before claiming 1/2 of mine. Right?
What if I file 1/2 of hers, then file for my own later with my wife also filing to receive 1/2 of that amount? Would that not effect our benefits going forward since I was taking benefits years before I filed on my own?
I have heard a lot about file and suspend but do not really understand the benefit.
your wife can not collect spousal benefits only her own until you file, in fact if she has her own work history and files early she never really switches to 1/2 yours.. if you wanted to wait until 70 you could file after fra and suspend yours and allow her to file for a bump up in hers.
marilyn is 2 years older than me too. she filed already at 62. i am waiting until 66 as 70 would create tax issues with my large rmds.
so marilyn gets a chack now based on her own record.
at 66 i have 3 options.
i can take my ss and marilyn gets an increase when i do equal to 1/2 my full less her full had she waited ,that difference is added to her own.
or at fra i could file , she grabs the kicker from 1/2 mine added to hers and i suspend leaving mine to grow.
or at fra i could file for 1/2 her full, she gets no kick upward since i didn't file for my own yet and i could let my own grow to 70. at 70 i get my own and she adds the kcker from 1/2 mine . that is called selective application or restricted application.
they get a reduced benefit forever if they file early . they never will get exactly 1/2 of ours if it is more than their own. they will get somewhere between their reduced benefit and 1/2 our full..
if we file early they get reduced survivor benefits . that can be an issue. if we both filed early than the survivor benefits get 2 cuts.
I thought you said they would get their early filing benefit and then the difference between that figure and 1/2 of ours when we file. Now I see you were using the word "full" in both instances. How do we calculate how much less her benefit would be? I can't get past the 2 full years ahead our wives are, that's 2 years worth of checks that is going to take a while to make up.
lets make up some numbers and say your wife filed at 62. she gets 800 per month vs 1200 if she waited for full.
she has to wait until you file to see anymore money added to hers.
so if you file and if your full is 2800 a month then they subtract her full which is 1200 from 1/2 yours which is 1400 .
the difference of 200 gets added to her early benefit giving her 1000.00.
had she waited she would have seen 1/2 yours or 1400.00 so she is penalized for filing early.
Thanks again for the good explanation So you are saying she benefits by waiting, I get that as it makes sense. But my FRA is 66/10, hers is 66/6. For her to wait until my FRA will mean she is waiting until she is 68/9 (she is 1 year 11 months older than I am) to receive 1/2 of my FR Benefits. Or are you saying if she waits to file at her FRA, in her case 4 more years past 62/6, she will then be entitled to 1/2 of my FRA and get that bump when I file at 66/10? Again by then then she will be 68/9. Either way it's still a lot of checks she would be passing up by waiting. And what if I am forced to file early? Not sure there is much of a benefit for her to wait if that is a possibility.
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