Insights on receiving SS lump-sum
 

There exist ways to receive lump-sum payment from Social Security.
The following article shows how and the pros and cons.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/a-wind...155816922.html

When you and your spouse retire, assuming both have worked their entire lives, do you both collect full social security or do married people get a reduced combined amount?

Florence's SS amount is based on what she earned during her time here as is mine. If I go before she does she gets a percentage of my amount but I believe loses her own in the process. If she goes before me I get nowt from her SS payment.

It was funny, last year I sold some stock with options I had from TI. So they reported it as W-2 income causing the SS folks to recalculate my payment.

I can tell this is going to get complicated... :)

Oh indeed, suppose the wife was the higher earner she would hardly want just a percentage of her husbands lower payment. They can be quite arbitrary as well. When I continued working past 65 tey would not let me refuse to take payment. As a result I was taxed at the maximum rate with that added to my salary. Then at 70.5 I was also forced to take the minimum from my 401k so that got taxed at the max, and all the crap was during Shrub's reign.:rolleyes:

So SS is um...sexist?

I thought you could work as long as you wanted. I didn't realize you "had" to take SS when eligible....

That is the theory, maybe I could have hired a lawyer - and paid him as much as I lost through taxes.:rolleyes:

How it really is:

'Primary' as used below, is whichever of a married couple has the higher SS entitlement. 'Spouse' is the person married to the 'primary.'

Spouse is entitled to spousal benefit of 50% of 'primary's' amount while both are collecting, so together they get 150%. If primary dies first, then spouse gets spousal benefit of 100% amount from then on.

But, if spouse worked and is entitled on his/her own account, he/she gets 100% of that entitlement, if it is greater than what he/she would get on primary's account. OTOH, if his/her entitlement is less, he/she just gets the spousal benefit, nothing extra.

If you really want to get into the nuances, there are various strategies available in which one spouse takes benefits earlier than the other. See a CPA. You can get an idea what the possibilities are here: http://www.schwab.com/public/schwab/..._security.html

I've never heard of a couple getting 150%. Although, the rest of your post is accurate.