Re:Carol - Elle
In my case, my own SS was higher, double what 1/2 if his would have been so it was a no brainer...but 1/2 of the income we had been living on which was enough to live comfortably on, but with no excess, was gone. I cut anything that wasn't absolutely necessary out of my budget..reducing my cable access and things like that down to the bare minimum. I figured out a rough estimate of how much per day I'd need for food, how much for gas and the total was the cash I allowed myself for the month. Some days I spent more and some days less but I stayed within what I had allotted and my SS check covered basic monthly bills. Unusual expenses had to come out of my savings. I worked continuously paying SS until I was 67 with a decent salary so I had a pretty decent SS check. I'm guessing, but since your working history isn't stellar, I'd say that you probably are already getting 1/2 of your husband's. A wife, on reaching retirement age is entitled to collect it based on her husband's if she is not collecting SS on her own. It's one of the reasons you need to have a feel for what your monthly bills are.
|
|