As I mentioned in my Reboot post in January, my husband decided to retire unexpectedly (“I quit my job today”) last October.  He was already on my health insurance so the major impact was going to be the loss of his income on the budget.

There is lots of general information available on the Social Security website as well as information from AARP (“AARP is the nation’s largest nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to empowering Americans 50 and older to choose how they live as they age.”), websites for any of the major investment companies (we use American Century, Fidelity, and Vanguard), and other financial magazines and websites.

In November, we went to the Social Security website to create an account for my husband.  Once you have an account established, you can check your earnings and use an income calculator for various dates and situations using your actual numbers. See the end of the post for a copy of the SSA Calculator Page.  The information and educational portions of the website are available all the time; however, when we went to set up his account, we got the following message:

We did have another couple of glitches with the processing of his application.  I received a letter informing me that I might be eligible for benefits.  On the same day I received a second letter that there was a request for activity on my account.  Since I had not applied for any benefits and was unable to get a response on the number included, I filed an e-mail notification of possible fraud.  When I received a response to the possible fraud, it turns out that the first letter was a courtesy notification that I might be eligible for benefits since my husband was applying.  The second letter was supposed to be addressed to my husband to provide identification to finish processing his application.  Verification of identify using his cell phone did not work, so we had to make an appointment with the local Social Security office to provide proof of identity (we were not going to leave his Driver’s license in a drop box). We were also able to get his application transferred to the local office.

Trying to contact Social Security by phone can be a real challenge.  I had several times I called and got a message that due to Covid and staffing that there were delays in getting through.  Sometimes the call terminated right after the message. Other times, I would be put on hold and after 10-15 minutes the call would drop.  I usually called 1st thing in the morning and finally had a successful call after 45 minutes on hold.  My husband went in for his appointment and we received communication a couple of weeks later that everything had been approved and that payments would start the following month.

One further note:  Since I am still working full time, 85% of my husband’s benefits are taxable.  Federal taxes are not automatically deducted from Social Security payments.  In order to avoid a large tax bill (and possible penalties) next year at tax time, we filed a Form W-4V, Voluntary Withholding Request.   You can opt to have 7, 10, 12, or 22 percent of your benefit withheld for taxes.  Complete, sign and deliver the form (drop off box or mail) to Social Security. I also adjusted my withholding on my salary to compensate for the 3 months that we received before the withholding was adjusted and other investment/inherited retirement income my husband is receiving.