Women have a vested interest in learning more about Social Security and making sure they and their spouses or other family members have made the right choices.
Women on average live longer than men and often find themselves alone in the later years of retirement. Social Security benefits are designed for survivors and for those who haven’t fully participated in the work force. Often, though, when considering what to do about Social Security benefits, people analyze the impact on one spouse in isolation and don’t look at the affect on the other spouse. Also, too, a complicated marital history needs to be carefully examined.
Many women drop out of the workforce during part of the child rearing years. In some cases, returning to the paid labor force in later years can still have a big impact on their 35 year Social Security record. In other cases, they may rely on their spouses’ earnings for their benefits.
In any case, their decisions about when to take benefits and whose record to rely on can be complicated and yield significantly different results – often amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Many people take benefits too early and it can be a costly mistake.