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I was married to a man for almost 19 years when he decided (unbeknownst to me) that he wanted a divorce. I felt that we had a happy marriage the majority of those years. We only had the occasional disagreement, as most marriages do.
In fact, he didn’t tell me until after the divorce was finalized his reasons for leaving me. He is the father of our two children. It was very devastating for me as well as our children when he left, although he has tried to be a good dad since the divorce and is very involved in their lives. I am 10 years 8 months older than him and am now 60 years old. He has remarried twice in the nine years since our divorce.
I have known for a long time that I can collect Social Security benefits based on his employment, since it will be much higher than my own benefit. However, I didn’t realize until recently (and wasn’t told by my financial planner) that I can’t start collecting Social Security benefits until HE is at full retirement age and not when I am at full retirement age. That would mean I will be in my 70s.
Please tell me exactly when I can start collecting my Social Security benefits based off his income. And is it based off his income when he retires, or his income when we got divorced? Also, is it possible for me to collect Social Security from my own work record when I am at full retirement age and then switch to his benefits when he is at full retirement age?
-S.
Dear S.,
Let’s get the bad news out of the way first: You have to wait until your ex-husband is eligible for Social Security benefits to collect on his record, but you don’t have to wait until he’s reached full retirement age. For anyone born in 1960 or later, full retirement age is 67. That means you’d be eligible for spousal benefits when your ex is 62, not 67.
Of course, that doesn’t do you much good. You’d still be at least 72 by the time you could start spousal benefits.
You can’t take your own…
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