SS gets a bit more complicated if you start taking it early and continue to work. The gov't reduces the SS payment by one dollar for every two earned over a certain limit, which can vary if you are married. If you take it early and continue to work and contribute to the fund, you will get re-evaluated when you reach Full Retirement Age, which is now 66 and some odd months, after which you can continue to work, receive benefits, and have nothing removed form your payment. As said above, if you don't begin taking it prior to age 70 1/2, you receive the highest payment.
Like I say we can't take State pension early... so it's a Moot point for us.. but I can imagine it would cause some confusion if we could...
My wife and I are very, very fortunate at this time. She works a full-time job and collects full SS. She started doing this at age 67. As for myself, I started SS Early Retirement at age 62. I haven't worked since starting my SS, so I didn't have to worry about money being taken out for holding down a job and making more than what was allotted for Early Retirement. I wasn't going to start SS at 62, but I was having way too much of a problem trying to obtain the kind of job I was experienced in and the days/hours I needed. IOW, Monday thru Friday, 7AM to 3:30PM. Weekends were for wife and I to have fun doing things, not working. Now, my SIL (wife's sister) doesn't get SS, because she didn't have it taken out as a school teacher. She however does get a descent Pension from the school district and works part-time (on-call) as a teacher. Problem with that is, most of the money she gets from this teaching goes to the Federal Government and State in taxes. There are plenty of Seniors out there that have to live off of SS, even though SS states that SS was never meant to live off of, they have to.
Holly, you don't have to discuss it here, but we already know that your husband makes a nice salary, drives a sports car and that you have a nice boat and other things. Nothing needs to be stated about it by you.
How do you know my husband makes a ''nice salary'', when have I ever said that? How do you know what type of car he has?..it could be an ancient old sports car For all you know Cody we could be up to our eyes in debt for those things?.. we're not as it happens but it may have been ME who earned Big bucks and not him... ... you should never presume !!!
There's no problem! My wife told me NOT to accept anything that was too far away and only the type of job I was experienced in. We both totally agreed that the job has to be days and no weekends. And, when wife and I agree on something...…….that's it. While working in Denver, CO, and living south of Denver, my drive each way was 28 miles...…….and we thought that was too far. She drove 5 miles to work.
You poor soul...28 whole miles each way?... how about a 5 hour commute? ...one overline train and 3 tubes ( subway trains) just to get to work leaving on the 5am train !! and the same again at 7.30pm or 8..at night, getting home at almost 11pm most nights..and I'd have to go and collect him from the train station, before I could go to bed and be up for work myself at 5am ... and finish at 6pm, 6 days a week My husband did that for many years... simply because to drive through to the other side of London from here would have taken longer by car.... fortunately he's located nearer to home these last few years and has a 40 mile commute by car which is an absolute breeze for him in comparison... but he still works up to 15 hours a day and 5 or 6 day weeks...he was 59 years old yesterday... Tonight he couldn't even make it home, from a location he was working at today, it would have meant getting home far too late, so he's had to pay to stay in a hotel in central London... and he'll go straight to work from there in the morning!!
So, 28 miles each way was a long way for me, but I did it for 4 1/2 years. After that, wife and I said "enough is enough". When I was in the Navy, there were days I worked 8 hours, then had to stand a Watch for 4 hours. In EMS, I worked long hours, as in 24 hours and had to sleep at the office where the Unit was parked. I have never/ever liked working more than an 8 hour shift. That is why, after the Navy and working in EMS, I started working in manufacturing. I drove less than 20 miles to work (until my last job), done an 8 hour shift, got paid weekly with every weekend off. Absolutely loved it. When I worked 28 miles from home, I started at 7AM, so I wasn't in the "between 7AM or 8AM" traffic. That was nice. But, did have to get up at 5:15AM Monday thru Friday. That got to be a "pain in the butt" also. There are those that are Seniors, or a few years from being one, that can work long hours, but we definitely aren't like those. When a person gets to 70, the body can't, or has a hard time doing it, work long hours. That's why a number of those 70 plus people only work a part-time job, if any at all.
Yes but you weren't doing any punishing hours when you were younger ..much less 70 years old..then you wonder why you have no decent pension and you're having to rely on your hardworking wife who is even older than you are . You would have been in a huge hole if you'd never met her late in life!!! Just saying!!
Sounds like you are upset that my wife, who has a Bachelor's Degree and is only a 1 1/2 years older than me, married someone like me who had very little, including financially, when we met and married. She knew I had very little, financially, to offer our marriage, but that was fine with her. She fell in love with my humor, that I liked to cook and other things.........not my financial status. Like your husband, she was willing to share her income. Well, I had "punishing hours" in the Navy as well as in emergency medical. Anyway, this thread isn't about who earned/earns the most money in a marriage, it's about those Seniors that have to rely on SS, or the equivalent in the UK, to basically live on.
Hey, Ken...…...what happened to this thread of mine???? Not showing any replies or views now, but can be replied to, as I just did.
Oh you talk such utter nonsense...... I'm not upset your wife married you, she could marry a pauper if she liked, none of my business... I was commenting on the fact, that you are happy to allow her to be the breadwinner, and work to keep you both in her old age, because by your own admission, you didn't want to work hard enough to be able to share the financial load with her..... which is your business, but that was my comment, not upset in the least....and there you go again. making assumptions about my husband and his income... !! Who says he shares his income?.. who says we don't have our own separate incomes?... you seem to think you know....
Then...…...don't continue posting to this thread or ANY thread that I do...…...if I "talk such utter nonsense". Just what do you mean "work hard enough". In Colorado, we both worked full time jobs and I got the best hourly wage I'd ever got in my life. My fault, but...……. You do really seem to get hussy when someone mentions your financial situation, but you and your husband don't live in the "slums" of Britain and have very nice things. You and him do nicely...…….and YOU know that. Your husband makes a nice salary and that is great, just like my wife does and I think it's great. Like myself, you contribute to your husbands income. My SS goes for paying bills, etc., just like my wife's does. NOW, can we TRY to get back to the darn thread and STOP this crappy bickering? Sure hope so.