Hi, I am Ummary - wanting to retire at 55

[ummary]

I am 54 and husband is 56. He has retired after 32 years at Texas Instruments with a 401k and a pension lump sum. I want to retire at 55 and we will live off of the above until he hits 62.

Then he will file for Social Sec, with a reduced amount. My question - We have been told that if he draws SS at 62, then the next year when I turn 62 I can draw a spousal benefit at about 50% of his amount. Then when I turn 66 I can file for full benefits.

Does anyone know anything about this? Thanks!

[MasterBlaster]

Ummary:

It's true. Your hubby can get a reduced benefit at 62.

at your full retirement age (65 - 66 ?), when you retire you can get half of what the hubby gets.

If you retire early at 62 then you'll get less than half of what hubby gets (maybe 70 percent).

the effect on both primary and spouse retiring early on the spousal benefit is that you'll get around half (that's 70 percent (or so) reduction for hubby and another 70 percent (or so) reduction for spouse) over what you'd get if you both started at full retirement age.

[ummary]

I may not have explained my situation as well as I could.... We were told that at 62 I could file for "spousal benefits" for 50% of my husbands, and then not file for 100% of my own benefits until 66 (my age mandates that 66 is the age) At that point we would be getting his partial benefits as he filed at 62, we would have collected 50% of his benefits for me through spousal beneifts, and then at 66 I would file for my own SS benefit at the 100% rate.

[MasterBlaster]

Ummary:

<EDIT: I have removed my response as I now know it to be in error. Please take a look at the linked thread in my next post. The spousal benefit and your own record benefit are not linked. So if your full retirement benefit is greater than your spousal benefit there will be no reduction in your SS payment when you re-apply for your own benefits at full retirement age. If your spousal benefit is greater than your own record benefit then the (spousal) amount over your own record benefit will be reduced due to you starting SS early. >

[Moemg]

Welcome , I'd checkhttp://www.ssa.gov/ and if your questioned is not answered call them . They are really helpful .

[MasterBlaster]

read through this thread (it starts out unclear but the actual rules become very clear later in the thread):
http://www.early-retirement.org/foru...fit-21908.html

[HFWR]

Lot of "retiring" going on at TI these days...

[Martha]

Muddy area, with the SSA information not always clear. Newthinkings full white paper can be found here: http://oregonpers.info/docs/articles...ing_07-8-1.pdf

I haven't reviewed this information in quite some time and am not sure how it applies to your situation where Unmary wants to start with smaller spousal benefit and then go to the larger individual benefit. However, IIRC I do not think that can be done. IIRC, when you apply at age 62 you automatically are applying for everything you are entitled to at that time, including your own benefits. This is from the SSA website at www.ssa.gov:

One of the provisions of the Social Security Act provides that whenever an individual files for reduced retirement or spouse's benefits, that individual is "deemed" to have filed for the other benefit as well. Essentially, this means that if an individual is eligible for both retirement and spouse's benefits in the initial month of entitlement, then he/she must be awarded both benefits. An individual cannot restrict the application to only one benefit when the deemed filing provision of the law applies.


What NewThinking in the attached link and in the prior thread was discussing was the situation where you apply for your own benefits and are not yet entitled to a larger spousal benefit. In that case, you can get that benefit later on. So, the prior discussion in this thread and in the attached links is not completely pertinent to your situation unmary. Where did you get your information? I would be interested.

Newthinking, you wouldn't be around would you?

[ummary]

My husband heard it from someone at work - not any reliable government source unfortunately.....