Retirement: The First Social Security Check

  • 8th Sep 2026
  • 3 min read

I'm happy to report that my first Social Security check appears to be queued up for direct deposit. I'm kind of excited because I've been running a pretty lean spending ship for 2 years, and the added income is welcome.

I'm sure I've covered my Social Security strategy before, but here's the short version. My wife is 3 years younger than I am. She worked for many years, starting in high school. She took employment breaks for various reasons, and is still working part time. Her income was historically low, so you'd expect her predicted Social Security payment to be low. However, the Social Security spousal benefit says that she's eligible for the higher of two options - her own Social Security based on her earning record, or 50% of my Social Security. There's lots of information about this on the Internet, but for us the key things to keep in mind are:

  1. She cannot collect 50% of my Social Security until I start collecting. She could collect on her own earning record earlier, then switch to 50% of my Social Security later. But her income will be reduced - see #4 below.
  2. She cannot collect more than 50% my Social Security calculated at my full retirement age (FRA), which was 66 years plus 10 months. If I decided to increase my Social Security by waiting until after my FRA, it would not increase what she was eligible for when I was at my FRA.
  3. If I started collecting Social Security before my FRA, it would be reduced forever. It would also reduce what my wife could collect based on my earnings.
  4. If my wife starts collecting Social Security before her FRA, her Social Security will be reduced regardless of whether she's collecting on her earnings record, or 50% of mine. This reduction is also permanent.

So our plan was for me to wait for my FRA, which maximizes her Social Security if she also waits for her FRA (age 67 in her case). Now the question is whether my wife's body will let her continue to work until she's 67? If not, she's get 50% of mine, reduced.

I also want to share a bit about the mechanics of paying for Medicare Part B and Social Security. Since I wasn't collecting Social Security when I moved to Medicare, the government was billing me quarterly. $608.70 per quarter this year. I last paid them in June 2026, which would have covered July, August and September. The government wants to collect you Medicare Part B payment from your Social Security check, so my first check will see a deduction for Medicare Part B. I'm receiving that payment in September, but I've already paid for Medicare Part B for September. I wondered how this was going to work out, and today I know:

  1. Your Social Security check is for the previous month. So my September check is for August.
  2. The Medicare Part B deduction in the September check is for the current month (September).
  3. Since I already paid for September, I received a check from the government today to refund my previous September payment.