If my husband dies first, what happens when two Social Security checks become one?
Let's say your husband receives $3,500 a month from Social Security and you receive $3,000. That's $6,500 a month coming into your household. If your husband passes away first, you may be eligible for his higher Social Security benefit as his surviving spouse. But here’s the thing….you don't continue receiving both checks. In this example, $6,500 becomes $3,500.
Now here's the problem. Did your monthly expenses just drop by $3,000 too? Probably not. You're still living in the same house with many of the same monthly bills as before. So where do you make up for the lost Social Security income? The answer might be your investments.
Let’s say you and your husband were taking $1,000 a month from your IRAs. Now you need as much as $4,000. That’s a significant change. You're not only replacing lost income each month. You may need to replace it for the rest of your life. And if you're the surviving spouse, that could be another thirty years or more.
So before deciding whether you have enough saved for retirement, I'd ask a second question: Do I still have enough if I'm the one who lives the longest? Because retirement may work very differently when two Social Security checks become one.
If you're married and you've never looked at whether your retirement still works with one Social Security check instead of two, text or call me at 513-434-1930.