my neighbor said she filed early for ss and then withdrew her application when she found out about the reduction. I think u have like a year to change ur mind? might be worth looking into

I'm SHOCKED no one has mentioned the break-even calculation yet!! For a $19 reduction, you'd need to calculate how many months it would take for the extra money from claiming early to equal the reduced amount over time. It's usually around 12-15 years for people claiming a year early, so for one month early it might be longer. But you NEED to calculate this based on your specific situation!

so sorry for ur loss

Just wanted to add that you should also check if you qualify for any divorced spouse benefits if you were married to anyone else for 10+ years. Sometimes people overlook this option when planning their claiming strategy. Also, since you mentioned you never remarried, that's good for your survivor benefit eligibility - remarrying before age 60 would have affected your ability to claim survivor benefits. One tip from my own experience: when you do go to apply, consider going to your local SSA office rather than trying to do it over the phone. The in-person reps seem to have a better understanding of these more complex claiming strategies, and you can make sure all the paperwork is correct before you leave.

As someone who just went through this process last year, I wanted to add a few practical tips that might help: 1) Keep detailed records of ALL your income sources throughout the year - wages, self-employment, and yes, even those royalty payments. Even though the royalties shouldn't count against your limit, having documentation will save you headaches if SSA ever questions anything. 2) If you do decide to take that hardware store job, ask your employer upfront about flexible scheduling. Since you're close to the $22,320 limit, you'll want to track your earnings carefully as you approach it. 3) One thing that caught me off guard - if you have any unused vacation pay or severance from a previous job that gets paid out after you start collecting benefits, that DOES count toward your earnings limit for the year it's paid, even if you earned it before retiring. 4) The "first year rule" mentioned earlier is really important for your situation since you just started benefits in January. In your first year of retirement, you can use a monthly test ($1,860/month for 2025) instead of the annual test, but only for months after you retire. This can be helpful if you had high earnings early in the year before starting benefits. Good luck with everything! The SSA phone wait times are absolutely brutal, so definitely consider that Claimyr service or try visiting your local office if you need to speak with someone directly.

As a newcomer here, I'm really grateful for all this detailed information! I'm 61 and planning to file for early retirement benefits next year, so this thread is incredibly timely for me. I have a question that's somewhat related - I currently do freelance graphic design work and have been trying to figure out how that would be treated under the earnings limit. It sounds like since it's active self-employment income (not passive royalties like the OP's situation), it would definitely count toward the limit. But I'm wondering about timing - if I invoice a client in December 2025 but don't get paid until January 2026, which year does that income count toward for the earnings test? Also, does anyone know if there are any special considerations for people who are self-employed when it comes to reporting earnings to SSA throughout the year? I assume it's more complicated than just showing them a W-2 at the end of the year. The complexity of all these rules is pretty overwhelming, but this community seems to really know their stuff! Thanks for sharing your experiences and knowledge.

One more important thing to know: If you're approved for disabled widow's benefits, you'll be automatically enrolled in Medicare after 24 months on benefits, regardless of your age. This is a significant benefit that can help with your healthcare costs. Also, when you reach your full retirement age (probably 67 in your case), your benefit will automatically convert to a regular widow's benefit, which will be 100% of your husband's PIA instead of the 71.5% you receive as a disabled widow. This increase happens automatically.

Just wanted to add some practical advice from my experience helping my sister with her disabled widow's benefits application. Make sure you gather ALL your employment records too, not just medical records. SSA needs to verify when you stopped working consistently to establish your disability onset date. Also, if you have any doctors who treated you back in 2014-2015, try to contact them directly for records - sometimes medical facilities purge older records after 7-10 years. One more tip: keep detailed notes of every phone call and visit with SSA, including names and dates. This helped us tremendously when we had to follow up on her application status. Best of luck with your application, Carmen!

my cousin told me the SSA website has a calculator for this stuff but i couldn't find it lol

I'm in a similar situation and found this thread really helpful! One thing I wanted to add - when you do contact SSA to confirm your earnings situation, make sure to ask them about how they'll handle your September benefit start date. Since you're retiring in September but your FRA isn't until December, they might need to adjust your first few benefit payments to account for the fact that you're technically still in your "FRA year" until December. Also, regarding the severance package - that usually doesn't count as "earnings" for the Social Security earnings test since it's not compensation for current work. But definitely confirm this when you speak with them, especially if any part of the severance is structured as consulting payments or continuation of salary. The peace of mind from getting official confirmation is totally worth the effort to reach them!