Social security question

[Anonymous]

I have many zeros for many years and will never hit the 35 years. I do have the credits.
I even have a zero for 2023 even though I worked. I do not wish to go sit at ss office and waste my time. I will find my w2 and taxes and mail them in. Maybe it shows zero for everyone, maybe my employer, who changed accountants, hasn't reported the earnings.
I called today and ofcourse nobody picks up the phone. I have too many zeros for this one year to make a difference. I have zeros because employer never paid me and I didn't know how to do my taxes without w2. Not getting paid by employer is so common when it comes to low income and no contract.

[Anonymous]

I am not the Op, but I have a question.

As the high earner, I plan to retire (and work part time?) at 60 but not collect until 70. My spouse has a much lower income, so we rethinking to have her collect at 62.

When I start collecting at 70, her amount should increase thanks to the spousal support feature.

I have a pension and sizable retirement savings so we plan to ride that down an bit until I hit 70. We think this might be the most tax efficient way to also maximize SS income.

Any thoughts or recommendations?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am not the Op, but I have a question.

As the high earner, I plan to retire (and work part time?) at 60 but not collect until 70. My spouse has a much lower income, so we rethinking to have her collect at 62.

When I start collecting at 70, her amount should increase thanks to the spousal support feature.

I have a pension and sizable retirement savings so we plan to ride that down an bit until I hit 70. We think this might be the most tax efficient way to also maximize SS income.

Any thoughts or recommendations?

You only get one life so don't worry about it. Unless you have chosen your year of death in advance, you can't optimize this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am not the Op, but I have a question.

As the high earner, I plan to retire (and work part time?) at 60 but not collect until 70. My spouse has a much lower income, so we rethinking to have her collect at 62.

When I start collecting at 70, her amount should increase thanks to the spousal support feature.

I have a pension and sizable retirement savings so we plan to ride that down an bit until I hit 70. We think this might be the most tax efficient way to also maximize SS income.

Any thoughts or recommendations?

You only get one life so don't worry about it. Unless you have chosen your year of death in advance, you can't optimize this.

So true!

However, Bogleheads have a handy spreadsheet that lets you play around.

https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=262772&start=150

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am not the Op, but I have a question.

As the high earner, I plan to retire (and work part time?) at 60 but not collect until 70. My spouse has a much lower income, so we rethinking to have her collect at 62.

When I start collecting at 70, her amount should increase thanks to the spousal support feature.

I have a pension and sizable retirement savings so we plan to ride that down an bit until I hit 70. We think this might be the most tax efficient way to also maximize SS income.

Any thoughts or recommendations?

open social security is an easy to use site that will tell you what the optimum strategy is on average to maximize income

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am not the Op, but I have a question.

As the high earner, I plan to retire (and work part time?) at 60 but not collect until 70. My spouse has a much lower income, so we rethinking to have her collect at 62.

When I start collecting at 70, her amount should increase thanks to the spousal support feature.

I have a pension and sizable retirement savings so we plan to ride that down an bit until I hit 70. We think this might be the most tax efficient way to also maximize SS income.

Any thoughts or recommendations?

This is what we are doing in the same scenario (without the pension). Depending on your ages and health, one other reason to do this is to maximize the survivor benefit for a lower-earning surviving spouse. Although my wife is a few years older than I am, it's likely she'll live longer, and so I want to max the benefit she'll get from my SS - that means taking it at 70. If your pension has a survivor benefit, you may come to a different conclusion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am not the Op, but I have a question.

As the high earner, I plan to retire (and work part time?) at 60 but not collect until 70. My spouse has a much lower income, so we rethinking to have her collect at 62.

When I start collecting at 70, her amount should increase thanks to the spousal support feature.

I have a pension and sizable retirement savings so we plan to ride that down an bit until I hit 70. We think this might be the most tax efficient way to also maximize SS income.

Any thoughts or recommendations?

I hope someone has the correct information for you - you should check before planning to do this
I thought they got rid of the option for the lower earning spouse to file early on their own record at age 62 and then switch to the spousal benefit when the higher earner files.
I believe that you are stuck with the first benefit you file for. So if your spouse stands to get much more if they file as your spouse, they might want to wait until you turn 70 (assuming your spouse is at retirement age and hopefully at least 65 at that point)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am not the Op, but I have a question.

As the high earner, I plan to retire (and work part time?) at 60 but not collect until 70. My spouse has a much lower income, so we rethinking to have her collect at 62.

When I start collecting at 70, her amount should increase thanks to the spousal support feature.

I have a pension and sizable retirement savings so we plan to ride that down an bit until I hit 70. We think this might be the most tax efficient way to also maximize SS income.

Any thoughts or recommendations?

Your spouse can collect SS based on their own earnings at 62 and later switch to spousal (50% of your benefit I think) once you start collecting. Spousal only works if the high earner spouse is also collecting.

There are websites that can advice you on the best time to collect SS as a family based on each of your stats (can't recall any names. Google). Make sure they consider time value of money. Just because the number is high at 70 does not mean your benefits are maximized. I built a spreadsheet and did that for my situation and in most cases (assuming different 'death' points), starting SS at 65/66 seemed the most optimal once adjusted for time value of money.

There's also a software called Maxifi by Larry Kotlikoff, a NYU professor, that covers optimizing SS withdrawals. I've heard good things about it but no personal experience.

[Anonymous]

For people thinking about applying for their benefits at age 62 and then switching to their spousal
Benefit at a later age, have you looked into how the “deemed filing “ provision impacts your spousal benefit. As I understand it, even if you file for spousal benefits at age 67, you are “deemed” to have filed at age 62 which would lower your spousal benefits quite significantly.
From ssa.gov:

“Deemed filing means that when you file for either your retirement or your spouse’s benefit, you are required or “deemed” to file for the other benefit as well. The Bipartisan Budget Act extends deemed filing rules to apply at full retirement age and beyond.

What is the reason for this change? Historically, if spousal benefits were higher than their own retirement benefit, they received a combination of benefits equaling the higher benefit. This change in the law preserves the fairness of the incentives to delay, but it means that you cannot receive one type of benefit while at the same time earning a bonus for delaying the other benefit.“