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Location: IN>Germany>ND>OH>TX>CA>Currently NoVa and a Vacation Lake House in PA
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My wife is 10 years younger than me, and fortunately when I retire at 60 or 62 (6 or 8 years depending upon a few factors) my benefits and pension will provide for both of us. So she'll get an early retirement.
My wife is almost 7 years older than I am. We've been married for 32 years now. I'm expecting to retire when I'm 58 and she is 65.
Being that I'm a saver, and a logical thinker, I started saving and thinking about retiring when I got my first job...lol When we got married, I was very aware that with our age difference I should kick things into gear with regard to planning for my relatively early retirement so that we have some quality (hopefully many) years of retirement life together.
Fortunately, we've both been healthy all our lives and can only hope that carries through for many years beyond retirement.
My wife was about 5 1/2 years older than me. We both retired early some months apart and got P/T jobs with some schedule flexibility so we could take long weekend trips and vacations. It worked pretty well for us. I was 52 when I retired and she was about 58. She died unexpectedly when I was about 59 but we had seven good years together. Retiring early saved our retirement...if I had waited we would not have had any time together. Five years difference isn't all that much for most of a married life but as we got older there were a few instances where we were aware of age issues. She had early osteoporosis which curtailed some activities but we still did things and travelled a lot.
Thirteen years is even more of a time spread. OP should probably develop social contacts or travel buddies if she wants to do a lot of travel but also be available for her husband's vacation or holiday/long weekend travel. Keeping a strong marriage is critical. Being alone for a few years in retirement carries some risk for OP so volunteering would be a good social outlet.
I'm 8 years younger than my husband, so when he retired, I retired. In actuality, I retired 2 months before he did because he was working at home anyway. Maybe he can retire sooner than his originally planned.
My husband is 14 years older than I am. He began having some health issues in his mid 70s. I retired at 60. I figured we weren't going to live forever and I wanted to have fun before health issues prevented it. He recovered and is healthier than he was before the issues. I'm glad I retired anyway. I was getting tired of work and am happy not working. fortunately we could do it financially as money was not an issue.
The social security question for such a couple has me wondering.
Assuming the older partner is the highest earner and waits until 70 for SS at the highest amount and then passes. The spouse would then need quite a few years to gain SS claiming of spousal benefits. If she/ he claims at 62 did they lose his gain by waiting?
Would it had been better for him/ her to have claimed at 62 collect some SS and the wife claim spousal benefits at 62
if he died she does not get spousal . she gets survivor benefits and they are very different from spousal ..
if she waits until her fra to take survivor she gets whatever he got . if he waited until 70 she gets the higher amount .
if he filed early she gets his lower amount .
if she takes survivor pre her own fra she can file at 60 for survivor . she gets a reduction for filing early . if he filed early there is a double cut .
she could take her own until fra then switch to survivor and get what he got.
assuming he took it at 62 and she took it at 60 there is a floor in place to avoid to steep of a double cut . she would get his fra amount , x.71 regardless of when he filed . at 62 it would be x.81
it is fine for just the ss end but incorporating that in to a personal situation with other needs ,assets ,and taxes is a lot more complex.
as an example , i am big on investing . if it was up to me i would generate all my income that way .
my wife was a widow once already . she had a pile of investments dumped in her lap she knew nothing about . she trusted the financial guy at her bank and he promptly lost 1/2 of it when tech and the dot com's went bust .
so if you ask her what she wants , she wants a low cost spia throwing in a base income eventually , she would like tax free life insurance for herself instead of an equivalent amount in taxable rmd's at a time she is now filing single and she wants a bit of investing for growth , perhaps a wellesley income fund ..
this stuff gets complex trying to find that middle ground for what is best for all parties .
the only reason it doesn't come up often is both parties have not lived through something like the above and losing a spouse yet and getting a load of investments dropped in their lap they have no understanding of and being alone with no pay check coming in from any source that is guaranteed other than ss . .
it can be a scary experience being alone all of a sudden and realizing only the whims of the markets are keeping you solvent and you have no understanding .
80% of all married men die married / 80% of all married women die alone . .
Last edited by mathjak107; 05-28-2017 at 04:29 AM..
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