Category: Social Security
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The ABC’s of Investing your Child’s Social Security Survivor Benefits
If you’re fortunate enough to have money left over from your child(ren)’s Survivor benefits every month, the Social Security Administration (SSA) has guidelines on how to save those funds. Per my recent blog post on saving your child’s SS survivor benefits, one of the rules is that funds over $500 should be placed in an…
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What Widowed Parents Need to Know About Saving their Child’s Social Security Survivor Benefits
If you’re fortunate enough to have money left over from your child(ren)’s Survivor benefits every month, you must save those funds following the Social Security Administration (SSA) guidelines on saving funds for a beneficiary. The guidelines are pretty dry and verbose so I’ve tried to put them in layman’s terms: How should I handle funds…
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Top Five FAQs on Social Security Survivor Benefits for Children
I recently read that more than half of the children in the US who have lost a parent are not receiving Social Security Survivor benefits, presumably because the surviving parent or guardian is not aware of them. Because of that, I wanted to write these FAQs: Does my child qualify for Social Security Survivor benefits?…
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Top 8 FAQs on Social Security Survivor Benefits for Widowed Parents
What are Social Security Survivor benefits? There are two types of benefits you are potentially eligible to receive when your spouse dies: a one-time death benefit payment of $255 and monthly Survivor payments based on your late spouse’s working record. Read my blog post on What Widowed Parents Need to Know About Social Security Survivor…
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What Widowed Parents Need to Know About Social Security Claiming Strategies
Social Security benefits are complex and confusing. If you are widowed and planning for retirement, there are different factors and strategies that can affect the amount of your benefit and when to claim it. Types of Benefits These Social Security benefits are potentially available to widow(er)s, but not at the same time, and they are…
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What Widowed Parents Need to Know About Social Security Survivor Benefits and Taxes
Since we’re in the midst of tax season, I wanted to answer some frequently asked questions on Social Security survivor benefits and taxes: Are my Social Security survivor benefits taxable? It depends on your other income, but there are two methods for figuring this out in advance of filing your taxes: Method A: The IRS…
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What Widowed Parents Need to Know About Social Security Survivor Benefits
When my husband died, I was surprised to learn that the government will pay Social Security Survivor benefits to the spouses, ex-spouses and children of someone who worked and paid Social Security taxes before they died, as long as they meet certain criteria and apply for them. These are the available benefits: Lump Sum Death…
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How I Received Survivor Benefits for Six Months While Unemployed
In early 2021, two years after my husband died, while the Covid pandemic was in full swing and the world was waiting on vaccines, I was completely overwhelmed and stressed out at work and obsessed with the thought that I was running out of time with my daughter, who was ten at the time. So…