When Should I Take Social Security? | Episode 5

After the Rush Podcast · Jul 16, 2026 · 16m · transcript

When I was sixteen, someone explained Social Security to me. She pointed to the FICA line on my paycheck and said: that money goes to the government, and when you retire, you get it back. Guaranteed. By the federal government.

I believed her. And then I spent the next forty-plus years paying in.

Now I am the one doing the math. And it is more complicated than she made it sound.

My husband has a federal pension. He does not have his own Social Security benefit. He receives widower’s benefits from a prior marriage. That means the standard “what should we do as a couple” framework does not apply…