Overview
- Social Security offers several distinct checks—retirement, survivor, spousal, and disability—and picking the right one affects your benefit size and timing.
- Survivor benefits can start at age 60 for a widowed worker or a divorced person whose marriage lasted at least 10 years, with special rules if the claimant is disabled.
- Spousal benefits become available at 62 and can equal up to half of a spouse’s full benefit if you wait until your full retirement age, but the other spouse must have already filed.
- Filing for retirement at 62 yields a permanently reduced monthly benefit while waiting past full retirement age raises your monthly check, so timing shifts lifetime income streams.
- Benefit amounts depend on your earnings record, which uses your 35 highest-earning years adjusted for inflation, so work history and years of earnings materially change the payout and planning choices.