Feb. 13, 2025

Five Things Every Woman Should Know About Social Security (and If She Gets Divorced)

Show Notes
Transcript

Are you aware of what every woman should know about Social Security? Today we will discuss these 5 topics 1) nothing keeps you from getting your own benefit, 2) there isn’t any marriage penalty or limit to benefits paid a married couple, 3) if you’re due 2 benefits, you get the one that pays the higher rate, 4) If you’re divorced, what are you eligible for?, and 5) when your husband (or your ex dies) are you due a widow’s benefit? Join us for the answers to these important questions!

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The topics and opinions expressed in the following show are

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solely those of the hosts and their guests and not

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those of W FOURCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We

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Welcome to to Ask Good Questions Podcasts, broadcasting live every Wednesday,

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six pm Eastern Time on W four CY Radio at

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w four cy dot com. This week and every week,

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we will reach for a higher purpose in money and life,

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as well as a focus on health and wellness. Now,

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let's join your host, Anita bell Anderson, as together we

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start with Asking Good Questions.

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Good day to you and all. This is the Ask

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Good Questions podcast. My name is Benita bell Anderson, and

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today we are going to talk about five things that

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every woman should know about so security, especially if she's

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getting divorced or maybe has lost a husband or a spouse.

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So let's get rolling all right. I am your host,

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as I said, and for those that are new, I

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am a financial advisor. I'm also an author and an

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investor coach. Have been there for quite some time. I've

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written a book called Money, Mindset and the Suddenly Single.

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It's the ultimate guide for divorcees and widows. And more

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about me can be found on the Ask Good Questions

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podcast website. So let's move on. I basically have become

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a snowbird, and so this has allowed me with being

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able to work from home but also be associated with

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a great company that I work with for the investing

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part of things. I'm up in Washington State in the

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summer and down in southern Utah in the winter. This

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is all driven by grandchildren. So five things that every

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woman should know about Social Security. We're going to ask

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some good questions today about this really really important topic

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for your personal planning. So first, of course, there is

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a financial disclosure. I'm sure you already know this, But

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I don't work for the government, thank goodness. I don't

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work for the soci Security Administration. These are my views.

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I am a registered advisor, but still you need to

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know these are my views. These are not the views

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of the government. All good, I'm so glad. So here's

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five big points. So we're going to go through them

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one by one. Number one, nothing keeps you from getting

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your own Social Security benefit. We're going to go through

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these one by one. Number two, there isn't any marriage

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penalty or limit to benefits that are paid to a

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married couple. Number three, if you're due two benefits, you're

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going to get the one that pays the higher rate.

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You're going to get one benefit. Number four, if you

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are divorced and we're married at least ten years, you

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might be eligible for some of your exes social Security.

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We're going to go into that in more depth. And

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number five, when your husband or your ex dies, you

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probably maybe do a widow's benefit. So we're going to

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go through these one by one. So number one, nothing

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keeps you from getting your own Social Security benefit. If

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you've worked for at least ten years and you earned

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a minimum of forty work credits is what they call it,

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you are vested in the Social Security system. That means

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you're guaranteed a benefit. Once you reach age sixty two,

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you are eligible for your own soci Security benefit. But

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I am going to be at the top of the

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list to tell you to wait. I have a much

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longer social Security workshop where I tell you about why

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you should wait. But whether you're married or not, whether

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your husband collects Social Security or not, these are all

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things that factor into what actually happens. And your retirement

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benefit is factored the same way as your husband's. There

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isn't any male female going on here. This is just numbers.

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This is just math. It's based on a percentage of

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your average monthly wage using a thirty five year base

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of earnings, and if you don't have thirty five years

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of earnings, we would substitute zeros for those years that

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you didn't have that. If you became disabled before your

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full retirement age, you might qualify for Social Security disability benefits.

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Hopefully that usually is a whole another can of worms.

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But hopefully you're not dealing with disability. But if you are,

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it is something that you could probably if you worked

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and you paid so security, you might have a benefit there.

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I can tell you it can be a long process

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to get that benefit, and if you also have like

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a pension from a government job, that could be reduced. Now,

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as you know, there's a lot of things going on

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with the government right now, so some of these things

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may maybe factoring in and be changing in the future.

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Right now, this is current as of right now with

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this information. Okay, so here's important information for now. So

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probably most of you listening are probably in that those

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categories down there at the bottom of the nineteen fifty

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eight is sixty six and eight months for full retirement age.

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If you were born in fifty nine, it's sixty six

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and ten months. If you were born in nineteen sixty

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or later, then your full retirement age is sixty seven.

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Here's a news flash. That may be one of the

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things that may be changing. They may be moving that

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to age seventy to be full retirement age. Full retirement

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age is when you get your full benefit. If you

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do anything before your full retirement age, you're going to

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get penalized. So I'm going to try to help you

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not let that happen. So I included this because this

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is a super interesting chart about if you're a geek

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like me. If you're a healthy male at age sixty five,

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there's you know, fifty percent chance and you're going to

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live to be ninety. And there are more and more

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people living to be ninety, but if you're a healthy

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female at age sixty five, I'm going to say that's

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like ninety two, there's a fifty percent chance that. I mean,

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the whole point of this is you have the potential

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possibly if you're keeping up with your health, which is

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another topic we talk about on this podcast. If you're

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keeping up with your health and doing some of the

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things that we suggest that you do, then you could

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live well into your nineties. And that those statistics show

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that if you are married and you're both healthy at

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sixty five, there's a good chance that somebody's going to

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be at least one of you could be ninety five.

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There's a twenty five per chance of somebody living past

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ninety seven. There's a one in ten chance that at

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least one of you is going to get past one hundred.

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Is that scaring the crap out of you? If you

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think about am I going to have enough money to

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live well? This is going to be one of the

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reasons why I'm going to say delay taking this benefit.

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We're going to talk about a lot of these things

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that have to do with this sort of thing. This

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was actually forget the year this was it's been a

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while ago that this was on the Time magazine. Can

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you imagine being one hundred and forty two years old?

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I don't think anybody can imagine being one hundred and

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forty two and being healthy and having enough money to live,

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But they sure, Medical science is sure thinking that they

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could help us live longer and longer and longer. So

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number two number one, remember was nothing's keeping you from

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getting your own soci Security benefit. Number two is there

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isn't any marriage penalty or limited benefits paid married couple,

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because if you are married now and both you and

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your husband have worked, you're each going to be paid

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your own Social Security benefits. So there was a little

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myth out there about a working woman is limited to

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one half of her husband's Social Security. That is not true.

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That rate applies to women who never worked, and pretty

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much there's not very many of those out there anymore. So,

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for example, if you are a Social Security benefit of

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like twelve hundred per month and your husband is due

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a Social Security benefit of fourteen hundred dollars a month,

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then while you are both alive and married, you're going

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to receive twenty six hundred per month in benefits. Now

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just a newsflash. When if your husband dies before you

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and he had a higher benefit than you, yours is

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going to go away and you would receive his. So

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in the case of a twelve hundred and a fourteen hundred,

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your twelve hundred would drop off. That is something that

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I have worked with many, many ladies to understand what

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their financial situation is going to be after a husband dies. Okay,

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let's let's I'm going to say this several ways so

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that I make sure that you'd know this. So a

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non working spouse, someone that doesn't have hardly anything in

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SOBS screty benefits, would receive fifty percent of their spouse's

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benefit if they apply it at full retirement age. Don't

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do this because you lock in the penalty. If you're

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sixty two, your benefit could be reduced as much as

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thirty percent. So please, please, please don't do that. There's

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ways to look at what are all the different choices

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for you, all right? And the other interesting thing is

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if you do wait until you're full retirement age, there

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is any benefit in waiting past that to receive a

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spousal benefit. All of these things are going to be

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handled by the Sole Security Administration, but it's important for

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you to be listening to this so that you ask

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the right questions when you call them about your own benefit.

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All right, So, after full retirement age, a spouse has

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the option to choose their own benefit or file for

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their spousal benefit. That could be possible. It depends on

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when you were born. And also between a husband and

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a wife, one or the other has to file for

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benefits in order for the other to be eligible for

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spousal benefits. And so here's another little caveat a person

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doesn't have to file until they are actually ready to

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take their sole security. You don't have to file when

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you reach age sixty seven. If you're still working and

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you have enough money to live on. Wait, wait, wait

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until you get that benefit at age seventy. To maximize

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the benefit, maximize the cost of living. And at the

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end of this presentation, I'm going to give you some

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other reasons that have to do with taxes. So and

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also this is for if you are discussing this with

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your husband and he has a higher benefit, you make

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sure he waits because if he does not live as

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long as you. You are going to remember how I said,

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you're going to receive the one higher benefit. If he

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has waited and has a higher benefit than you, you

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will receive that higher benefit, all right. So here's an

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example from leave it to Beaver. I just use June

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and Wally. If she waited until full retirement age, but

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she hadn't worked that much, her own benefit would be

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eight hundred. But her and let's say not Wally Ward.

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If Ward had a two thousand dollars benefit, then fifty

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percent of that is what one thousand, so she would

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receive what they call a two hundred dollars spousal add on.

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So her own benefit would be eight hundred plus a

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two hundred dollars spousal benefit because it brings it up

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to half of what Wards. So security benefit is all right.

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And if she waited, then her benefit might be a

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little bit past one thousand because of cost of living increases.

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So these are all things that you know as you

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study this more. And if we did the calculations for you,

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and we can show you what that would look like.

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All right. This is primarily today for people who have divorced,

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so let's get into that. So number three on my

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five things for you to know is if you do

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two benefits, you get the one that pays the higher rate.

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You're not going to get both of them, right. Most

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women are potentially due to benefits, their own retirement benefit

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and potentially a spousal benefit like I just illustrated for you,

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but you only get the one that's the higher rate,

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meaning like if you if like if you're a doctor

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and you have a higher Social Security benefit than your husband's,

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there's no there's no spousal benefit, right, And most of

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the time a wife is due between one third and

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one half of her husband's SO Security. Most working women

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and who reach retirement age get their own Social Security

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benefit because it's more than one third or one half

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of the husband's rate, right, Like if he had a thousand,

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you know, if he had let's say he had a

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fifteen hundred and you had a sixteen hundred dollars, there's

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not going to be any spousal But if your husband

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dies before you, you can apply for the higher widow's rate.

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And so that's there's the thing with SO security is

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these rules keep circling around whether you're divorced or widowed,

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or if you're married. There's some basic rules that keep

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applying to all of these different scenarios. But here once again,

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if you are divorced, here's the big things. You have

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to be currently unmarried to receive a benefit from an

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ex's record. You have to be it's early unmarried. You

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have to be at least sixty two. You have to

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been married at least ten years, and your ex spouse

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needs to be at least sixty two. However, what doesn't

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show in this list is if you are not waiting

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until for overtimement age, you're going to get a penalty.

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They're going to reduce what the benefit is. So the

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way to not take a penalty is to receive the

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divorced spouse benefits from age sixty seven to seventy if

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you can. If that works, if you can just receive

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a spousal benefit, that'd be great and let your own

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benefit receive delayed credits until age seventy. That's the biggest

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thing is that you could potentially do to help yourself.

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So number four or five is if you're divorced and

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you were married at least ten years, you're eligible possibly

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for some of your exes social Security. So you have

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to be unmarried. You can't don't get married again. You

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have to be unmarried. To receive anything from an excess record,

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you have to add, here's an interesting thing. If you

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sign some kind of degree decree during the divorce settlement

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that says you relinquish rights to his benefit, that's never

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been enforceable and never lawfully ever enforced, because the thing

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is that you receiving a benefit off of an excess

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record doesn't affect his record. He doesn't even potentially have

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to know about it. And so payments to a divorce

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spouse don't reduce his payment, and the same payment rules

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rules really are going to apply either to divorced wives

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and widows and they as to current wives and widows.

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If that makes sense, all right, So let's just be

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clear about some of this with you know, if you

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do lose a spouse. The biggest thing that I would

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also say is you can go to the podcast website

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Ask Good Questions podcast dot com. There's an information page

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about me on in the bonus downloads, and the link

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to that book about divorces and Widows is there if

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you want, you know, a much wider discussion about retirement

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and all of that that can happen. So let's focus

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in for a minute on widows. A spouse can't switch

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to her husband's higher benefit at his death, so you

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have to provide a death benefit, I mean a death

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certificate and vice versa. Is this is not there isn't

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any gender thing going on here. It's just math and

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it's just looking at people's records and who had the

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higher benefit, and that survivor benefit is going to be

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based on the higher earning spouse's benefit. That might include

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delayed credits or cost of living increases. So delayed credit

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00:19:25.599 --> 00:19:30.359
means you've waited beyond your full retimement age. If it's

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sixty seven, you know you get some delayed credits if

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you're sixty eight. But if you wait all the way

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those three years to age seventy, you're going to get

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the maximum benefit that you can have, which I feel

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is important because think about when you're eighty, and think

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about when you're ninety. You're going to want to have

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the maximum benefit that you can get with everything that

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you're doing. Right, So let's continue on, let's drill this

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into your brain. Widowed spouse can claim benefits as early

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as age sixty or fifty if they're disabled. However, the

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caveat is what if you do that before your full

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retirement age, there are going to be reductions and I

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call them penalties for receiving benefits early. So when you

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do that, you completely lock in that much reduced benefit

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for the rest of your life. I don't want to

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see you do that, so remember. So this is the

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same as for divorces. If a widow was married at

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least ten years and their spouse studies whether they were

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still married or divorced at the time of the death,

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they might be entitled to a survivor benefit. Okay, here's

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the important thing. If the survivor remarries before age sixty,

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there isn't any survivor benefits unless that marriage ends. You

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could literally, if you went in to get survivor benefits

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and you found out no, I'm sorry, you can't have

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any because you're married, you could go get divorced, be

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able to show a divorce certificates showing that you are

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legally divorced, and the death certificate from the ex spouse,

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and go back in and get those survivor benefits. I

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know it's crazy, but that is the truth. And the

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thing that is interesting about this whole thing is that

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guy who you might have beginning be able to get divorced.

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You know, if he's if you just divorced from him

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and he's still alive, not even know because remember, his

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benefit isn't going to change. But I had one instance

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in a workshop I was doing where the wife, the

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second wife of the guy, just became enraged because she

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was like, what that nasty first wife is going to

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get a benefit and she didn't like that. But that's yeah,

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it's possible. It's possible for that to happen. So here's

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the way to make this better and make this so

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that it maximizes what you can get. Widows and widowers

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who qualify for benefits based on their own work credits

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could possibly. I'm not saying any of this is a

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for sure, because I have learned every single individual situation

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is something that has little tweaks and twirls around them,

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and so you have to understand these big principles and

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then you're going to go into Social Security and you're

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going to talk to them to find out how it

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applies to you specifically, but overall, the general principle is

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you could receive survivor benefits from age sixty to sixty

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nine and then take advantage of delayed credits and get

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the maximum benefit that you can at age seventy on

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your own record. So remember that reductions to all of

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this is still going to apply. Make sure just I'm

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you're going to hear me screaming this loud and clear.

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Do everything you can to delay taking credit. I understand

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when there's extenuating circumstances, I get it, but I want

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you to delay if you can, because it's going to

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be important when you're eighty, and it's going to be

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important when you're ninety. Okay, here is the last, the

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fifth one of the five. When your husband or your

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ex dies, you're probably due a widow's benefit. So widows

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are going to get about seventy one percent of what

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they could potentially get at full retirement age at age sixty,

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and they get one hundred percent of that at full

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retirement age. So the message that I keep saying over

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and over and over again is wait, keep on working,

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do what you can to leave these alone until you're

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at least until you're full retirement age. You are going

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to get your own benefit first, and then whatever is

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due to you will be added on. Remember a while

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you know earlier I talked about June and how she

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had an eight hundred dollars benefit and she got a

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00:24:53.960 --> 00:24:57.839
spouse of add on of two hundred dollars to bring

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her up to fifty percent of her husband's. That's what

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00:25:01.200 --> 00:25:04.359
they're talking about. You're going to get your own benefit first,

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and whatever is due to you will be added on. Now,

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I think this is laughable, but there is a one

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00:25:12.839 --> 00:25:15.759
time two hundred and fifty five dollars death benefit. If

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you were living with your husband when he died, maybe

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00:25:19.480 --> 00:25:22.279
go spend that on the obituary in the newspaper. I

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00:25:22.319 --> 00:25:26.319
think that's about what it costs now. And if you

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00:25:26.519 --> 00:25:29.160
made more money than your husband, then the reverse could

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be true. Remember this could apply to either one of

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the spouses. So here's just a little caveat on working

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while you receive benefits. Don't do it. Don't work and

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receive Social Security benefits until you reach full retirement age.

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Working is going to reduce your benefit amount, and this

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is on earned income. This is like jobs that are

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taking money out for retirement accounts and Medicare and SOID Security.

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Once you reach that magic full retirement age of possibly

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sixty seven, your benefits are reclculated so that you'll receive

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the full benefit amount. Remember, though, if you are working

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and you're receiving soil Security, you are also going to

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00:26:25.359 --> 00:26:31.680
be jacking up your taxable income. That might in fact

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00:26:31.839 --> 00:26:35.160
take you into a whole another tax bracket that you

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00:26:35.279 --> 00:26:39.200
might not want to do. So you can, but you

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can work and receive sobi security, but please try try

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00:26:42.920 --> 00:26:44.799
try not to do that. Let me explain to you

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how this works. They have a formula, and so Security

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will deduct a dollar of benefits for every two dollars

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00:26:54.119 --> 00:26:57.799
you earn above twenty three thousand, four hundred and twenty

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twenty five. Now, well, that's that keeps that that keeps

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on going up a little bit every year. But in

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this example, if you decided to work part time, like

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00:27:11.599 --> 00:27:15.000
at a golf course, and you were in twenty five thousand,

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00:27:15.160 --> 00:27:18.799
six hundred and the amount allowed is twenty three thousand

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and four, that's twenty two hundred dollars over. That means

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that Social Security when you do your IRS ten forty,

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when you do your tax return, they're going to say

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we want eleven hundred dollars back because they're applying this

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formula for working while you're receiving benefits. So that is

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Five Things Every Woman Should Know About Social Security (and If She Gets Divorced)

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