Social Security

I am officially old. I applied for Social Security yesterday. I still can’t believe how easy it was to do.

I started by filling out their on-line application at ssa.gov. That takes awhile because they ask for a lot of information but it was all stuff I knew so it wasn’t difficult. The only thing I had to look up was what was the last year I worked.  

I know, I know. How can I not know the last year I worked? My last job was as a free-lance writer. I wrote as topics occurred to me and stopped when I couldn’t get around well enough to do the research anymore. Why would I want to remember when that was?

Anyway, I filled out the form and sent it on its electronic way.

Last night I got a phone call from a lady at Social Security in Kansas City. She wanted to verify my information and talk about me filing under Dave’s earnings rather than my own. I already knew I wanted to do that since he worked a lot more and earned a LOT more than I did. I took a lot of time off to be an Army wife then raise our daughter in addition to retiring very early. When I did work for pay it was mostly part-time. So my benefits weren’t going to be wonderful if they depended solely on my own earnings. Fortunately, Dave and I have been married more than four times the required ten years for me to qualify to file under his earnings and he told them that back when he filed for his benefits so they already had a record of that.

So, the lady and I talked awhile, then she and Dave talked awhile, then she said she had everything she needed. I don’t even need to go into an office with any of my official documents like Dave did when he applied about six month’s ago. I get to just wait for my first payment to show up in our bank in September. Isn’t today’s technology marvelous?!

TTYL,

Linda