Social Security spousal benefits timing when turning 65 - husband already collecting since 65

Definitely apply 3 months before your 65th birthday. That's the earliest SSA allows you to apply for retirement or spousal benefits that will start at 65. If you wait until after your birthday, benefits aren't retroactive unless you've reached your Full Retirement Age (which is likely 66 and several months for you based on your age). As for documents, you'll need your birth certificate, marriage certificate, and your husband's Social Security number. You can apply online at ssa.gov or schedule an appointment at your local office.

you should wait til your FRA! if you take spousal at 65 youll get a reduced amount forever. i made that mistake and regret it every month when i see my check

I just went through this exact situation with my wife last year. If you take spousal benefits at 65 when your FRA is 67, you'll get approximately 86% of what you'd get at your full retirement age. That's a permanent reduction. Here's what we did: my wife took her OWN benefit at 65 even though it was smaller, then she'll switch to the higher spousal benefit at her FRA to get the full 50% of my benefit. The math worked better for our situation. Ask SSA to calculate both scenarios for your specific numbers.

When I turned 65 last year I had to wait 8 WEEKS on hold trying to reach SSA to ask similar questions!!! Absolutely ridiculous. Finally my neighbor told me about Claimyr.com - it's a service that waits on hold with Social Security for you and calls you when an agent is on the line. They have a video showing how it works at https://youtu.be/Z-BRbJw3puU. Saved me hours of frustration. When I finally got through, the agent explained all my options way better than what I found online.

Does anyone know if there's an income limit if I take spousal benefits at 65? My husband still works part-time and makes about $28,000/year. Will that affect MY spousal benefit amount? So confusing!!!

Just wanted to share that I took spousal benefits at exactly 65 three years ago. Applied online about 2.5 months before my birthday and it was really simple. Everything went fine except they somehow lost my marriage certificate after I uploaded it and I had to send it again which delayed things by 3 weeks. So make sure you follow up if you don't hear anything within a couple weeks after applying!

Thank you all for the helpful information! I've decided to schedule a call with SSA using that Claimyr service to discuss my specific options. Seems like I have three choices: 1) Take spousal benefits at 65 with a permanent reduction, 2) Take my own smaller benefit at 65, then switch to full spousal at my FRA, or 3) Wait until my FRA to start with the full spousal benefit. I need to see actual dollar amounts for each scenario to make the best decision for our situation. I'll update here after I speak with them in case it helps someone else!

Smart approach! One more thing to consider in your decision: If you're still working and plan to continue past age 65, option #3 (waiting until FRA) might be best because you avoid the earnings limit completely. But if you're not working or earning under the threshold, then comparing the actual benefit amounts for options 1 and 2 makes the most sense. And remember that spousal benefits don't earn delayed retirement credits past FRA, so there's no advantage to waiting beyond your FRA of 67.

make sure u ask them about medicare too! you should still sign up for that at 65 even if you delay SS benefits otherwise theres a penalty