As your retirement age approaches, there might be some things you didn't know and that might be super helpful.
I won't go into the details of my 26-year marriage (started dating him at 16 years), but the divorce was excruciating. He cried and begged me not to get a lawyer or use the judge's formula for alimony. He said it would ruin our finances. He was making well into six figures and I had worked part-time to continue our gifted child's scheduling, parent rep, maintaining household, family events, and so much more. It seemed like a good divide in order to not sacrifice the life we both wanted and nix the daycare costs.
He talked me into no lawyers and not allowing the judge to set alimony based on his income I was so desperate to leave, I took the low amount and a 10-year limit on alimony (should have been lifetime).
Enough said. What you need to know is that a marriage of more than 10 years, if you don't remarry, you can claim part of his retirement total. There's a few caveats -
*You must prove the marriage and divorce with certified documents, these are easy to order and you mail them to the address the representative reviewing your case gives you. The marriage must have been at least 10 consecutive years and divorce at least 2 years.
*If you retire before your full age (a lot of us it's 67 years now), you get 32.5% of his amount. At full retirement age, it's 50%.
*That amount should be more than what you yourself would get. You get to pick this higher amount. In my case mine was just 800 bucks. Taking 32.5% of his was almost 1400.
*He (or she) does not know that you are getting this because it does not affect his/her own amount.
No, you can't live on that alone, but you can consider a part-time work while receiving it. I believe you can make up to $22,000 with social security before they start taxing you for taking social security with bigger income.
After housing issues since divorce and entering retirement age, I have a dream of having a home with an ADL unit on it, maybe having a few retired divorced or widowed friends all sharing together and helping each other out with drives to doctor appointments or birthday cakes, community garden, and other ways of making life easier financially and emotionally.
Deciding to retire is one of many choices as you enter the golden years, but it can be made easier if you know you are getting your fair share of social security.
I hope this helps others.
More info - LINK
Comments
Post a Comment