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Social Security Q&A: Should My Sister Wait to File on Her Ex’s Record?
(By – Laurence Kotlikoff, www.forbes.com)
Social Security may be one of your largest assets. What and when you collect will make a huge difference to your lifetime benefits. Today’s social security question is about sequencing retirement and divorced spousal benefits.
Question: My sister Stephanie was married more than 10 years but divorced in mid-life. She originally worked as a licensed practical nurse before marriage and children. She worked for her husband’s business as well for a few years. After raising her children, she went back to work as a nurse’s aid not making too much. She recently retired at 62 but has not started taking Social Security yet. My guess is that she’ll be better off taking her own retirement at 63 or 64 and then taking half of her ex-husband’s when he retires at full retirement age. How can I evaluate this? The Social Security administration said she’d be better off taking her own Social Security, but I doubt it; her ex-husband always made pretty good money. Read more…