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I'm pretty sure that my wife and I reduced our (future) SS benefits by getting married, and neither of us have been married before. (We definitely increased ou

• Retric 15y ago
  No, it does not work like that. The math on benefits are really simple you can take either your SS benefit or 50% of your living spouses or 100% of your dead spouses. Taking 50% of your spouses is a proxy for the 'low-income' subsidy where a single worker is supporting 2 people. There is a minor 'penalty' for taking SS early which is supposed to even out the expected benefit but this is calculated for each benefit separately. So, let's say you decide to retire at 62 and not wait till 68. You have 2 choices you can take your normal befit and gain nothing, or you can take your 50% your spouses benefit at 62 wait until 68 take your benefit calculated as if you had revived zero benefits. Net result your ahead. PS: Feel free to use there calculators to check this out: http://www.ssa.gov/planners/benefitcalculators.htm http://www.ssa.gov/planners/benefitcalculators.htm