The Truth About Spousal Benefits

The Truth About Spousal Benefits
Photo by Nguyen Thu Hoai / Unsplash

Here's what you need to know.


Spousal benefits can be a very tricky task to claim. It requires a lot of material and money from both ends and can often lead into several miscalculations.

Firstly, the spouse can't claim any benefits before the other spouse has filed for their social security. Once that is cleared the person with the largest earning has to claim the benefits first before the other spouse does.

This is due to errors that would occur if one does so. Experts also advise soon to be retirees to wait until the full retirement age to claim these benefits since they will be of most value then. They advise that early retirement with spousal benefits could do more harm than good.