Can I Draw on My Husband's Social Security

Married couples take Social Security options

With just a lilliputian planning, yous and your spouse can brand the nigh of your Social Security benefits.

POINTS TO KNOW

Coordinating your benefits with your spouse'south benefits tin help you lot both get the most out of your Social Security payments.
In some cases, it makes sense for both spouses to claim on the aforementioned spouse'due south earnings record.
Many couples use a "split strategy," which means they brainstorm claiming at different ages. It might exist worthwhile for the college earner to wait longer to collect.

First with benefits estimates for yous & your spouse

Your kickoff stride in maximizing your Social Security benefits should exist to visit the Social Security Administration (SSA) website.

Who's the higher earner?

Compare the estimates for you and your spouse, and pay special attention to the divergence between your estimates. The college earner is the spouse with the larger master insurance amounts (PIA).

When you lot're deciding who volition collect first and who should look, consider having the lower earner collect get-go and having the college earner wait. Over fourth dimension, the higher earner's increases will be worth more the lower earner's increases.

And if one spouse's estimates are more than twice as high as the other's, it might make sense for both of you eventually to collect on the same spouse's earnings record.

In that situation, the spouse with the lower benefits can merits first based on his or her ain earnings record and apply for spousal benefits afterwards when the spouse with the college benefits starts to collect.

The longer the spouse with the higher benefit waits to offset collecting, the higher benefits volition be for both spouses. Delaying the college earning spouse's benefits could also eventually increment the other spouse'southward survivors benefits.

Factors that could reduce your payments

Earlier you plug your Social Security estimates into your retirement plan, exist sure to adapt those estimates if whatsoever of these factors apply to come across how much you might actually end up with.

Figure out the best fourth dimension for you lot and your spouse to merits Social Security

Every bit you consider the right time to start collecting Social Security, call up that if you lot decide to filibuster, you lot can revisit that decision as often as yous'd like.

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Plummet all

Anyone who's paid Social Security taxes for at least ten years can starting time to receive retirement benefits as early equally age 62 based on his or her own earnings record. A married spouse without an earnings record (or whose tape would upshot in a lower Social Security payment) can collect on his or her spouse'southward earnings record when his or her spouse turns 62.

Collecting Social Security at 62 has some advantages. For example, you may exist ready to retire and counting on Social Security equally the cornerstone of your retirement program. After all, if you've paid Social Security taxes for x years, and so you lot're entitled to Social Security benefits.

If you or your spouse has serious health problems or a family history that suggests you may not live long enough to turn a profit from waiting, collecting early might make the well-nigh sense for yous. Just recall that if the college earner delays, the surviving spouse's survivors benefits could also increment.

On the other hand, the earlier you start to collect, the less you'll receive each month. But if you lot start to collect then alter your heed, you take 2 options.

The "reset" rule

Within 12 months of starting to collect, y'all can "reset" your benefits to erase the reduction, but you must repay all of the benefits y'all and your family earned.

Meet how it works: The "reset" rule

The voluntary intermission rule

If you started collecting before your full retirement historic period (FRA), you tin suspend your benefits at FRA and restart them later.

See how it works: Voluntary suspension

If y'all beginning collecting Social Security retirement benefits at your full retirement age (FRA), you'll receive 100% of your master insurance corporeality (PIA). But remember that you can collect more than than 100% of your PIA by waiting across your FRA.

You'll earn an extra 0.67% each month that you filibuster your Social Security benefits past your FRA. That's an extra 8% for each year that you lot wait by FRA … and what other investment can guarantee an eight% annual increase?*

Since it's unlikely that you and your spouse were built-in on the same day, the two of you lot will stagger your start dates if you both collect at your corresponding FRAs.

If you lot're planning on staggering your showtime dates anyhow, consider delaying the college earner's start date beyond his or her FRA, since the higher earner'due south payments will increment past a college percentage as a result of waiting.

If you or your spouse (or fifty-fifty both of you!) tin can wait until you're 70, yous'll receive your highest Social Security payments—upwardly to 132% of your primary insurance amount (PIA) if your full retirement historic period (FRA) is 66, and 124% of your PIA if your FRA is 67.

Even if married couples start collecting on the aforementioned date, they're almost e'er different ages. Claiming at different ages is called a "divide strategy."

Remember that the longer you look, the more you'll receive—that's truthful for everyone. And if you determine that one of you volition wait longer than the other to kickoff collecting, information technology makes more sense for the higher earner to wait.

In other words, the separate strategy that many couples use is to have the lower earner collect first for equally long every bit the couple tin manage their finances on 1 Social Security payment. And then, when the college earner begins to collect, his or her payments will accept increased more than than the lower earner'southward would take, and the surviving spouse's survivors benefits would also increment.

Come across how information technology works: Carve up strategy

An advanced claiming strategy (if one spouse reached 62 by 2015)

If you or your spouse reached age 62 by the stop of 2015, you qualify for a Social Security claiming strategy called restricted application.

Here'southward how it works: The younger spouse (who doesn't demand to have turned 62 at the stop of 2015) claims Social Security benefits based on his or her own earnings record.

When the older spouse (who must have been 62 at the end of 2015) reaches full retirement age (FRA), he or she files a restricted application for spousal benefits only. At that indicate, both spouses are claiming benefits based on the younger spouse's earnings record.

Then, at age seventy, the older spouse claims benefits based on his or her ain earnings record, which accept increased to 132% of what that spouse would've been eligible for at FRA.

See how it works: Restricted application

What's side by side?

Social Security provides more than merely retirement benefits. And the federal government offers more just Social Security benefits. Equally you put your retirement plan together, check to see whether you qualify for other government benefits, such equally family and children services, tax aid, and agile military or veterans benefits.

Apply for Social Security

Y'all tin can file for Social Security benefits online, over the phone, or in person at a local Social Security Assistants office.

You may need to produce these documents when you apply

Your Social Security card.
An original birth certificate or other proof of your nativity.
A re-create of your W-2 class or cocky-employment tax return for the previous yr.
Your marriage certificate.
If you weren't built-in in the U.s.a., proof of U.Due south. citizenship or lawful alien status.

A Vanguard advisor can help

If you're struggling with making your best Social Security decision, nosotros can assistance. You'll also get a custom financial programme, ongoing portfolio management, investment coaching, and real-fourth dimension goal tracking—all at a low cost.

Your Social Security guide

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Your retirement

Your best Social Security strategy

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Read our Social Security brochure

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Source: https://investor.vanguard.com/retirement/social-security/strategies-for-married-couples