Will 5 years without SS contributions reduce our benefits if collecting at FRA?

You're fine! Social Security calculations use your highest 35 years of indexed earnings, regardless of when those years occurred. The 5 years of no contributions won't hurt you if you already have 25+ solid years of maximum or near-maximum contributions. SSA adjusts your past earnings for inflation (called indexing), so those high-earning years will count significantly. If you've contributed the maximum for 25 years, those zeros won't even enter your calculation as long as you have at least 10 other years with some earnings.

wait ur prob overthinking this. my dad did something similar and hes fine. ss just looks at ur best 35 yrs so if u have good years already ur set

Actually, this is something I was confused about too. One thing to understand is the difference between QUALIFYING for benefits (which requires 40 credits or about 10 years of work) versus the AMOUNT of benefits (based on highest 35 years). With 25 years of high earnings, you definitely qualify. But if you only have 25 years total of work, then 10 zeros will be averaged in. Each zero year does slightly lower your average, but probably not enough to justify working just for SS purposes if you don't need to or want to.

I went through EXACTLY this situation with my spouse!!! We retired at 58, had maybe 28 years at max contributions. We worried about the same thing but when I used the SSA calculator on the website, I was shocked that those last few zero years barely made any difference. If you've paid in at the maximum for 25 years (and those years get indexed for inflation), you're probably already close to the maximum benefit anyway. There's a cap on how much you can get regardless of how much you paid in.

This is a common misunderstanding about Social Security. The benefit calculation uses your highest 35 years of earnings, but those earnings are indexed to account for wage growth/inflation over time. If you had 25 years at the maximum taxable earnings amount, that's excellent, but your benefit calculation will include 10 years of zeros (or lower earnings from earlier in your career). However, here's the important part: working now just to avoid zeros in your calculation probably isn't worth it financially unless you can earn significantly more than your rental income. If you're each earning $22,500 now, that's likely lower than many of your previous 35 highest years (especially after indexing), so these years wouldn't even be counted in your top 35 anyway. You can check exactly where you stand by creating an account at ssa.gov and viewing your earnings record and benefit estimates.

U should be fine BUT what about medicare?? Aren't there penalties if you don't sign up right when you turn 65? That's what scared me into signing up right away

The SSA phone lines are IMPOSSIBLE to get through!! I had the exact same question last year and spent THREE DAYS trying to talk to someone. I finally found this service called Claimyr that got me through to an agent in under 10 minutes. Watch their demo at https://youtu.be/Z-BRbJw3puU. Seriously saved my sanity and the agent confirmed that my zero years weren't going to dramatically affect my benefit since I already had plenty of high-earning years. Worth checking out if you need detailed answers specific to your situation.

One more important point - since you're planning to claim at your Full Retirement Age of 67, you'll receive 100% of your primary insurance amount (PIA). But you could potentially increase your benefits by 8% per year if you delay beyond FRA up to age 70. Given your work history, this could be significant. Something to consider in your planning.

btw make sure u look at spousal benefits too...might be worth having lower earner take early and higher earner wait. thats what my parents did