BrightPersonal FinanceRetirement

Message to Homemakers: Building Up Your Own Social Security Might Not Be Worth It

Save
Message to Homemakers: Building Up Your Own Social Security Might Not Be Worth It
If you have spent your life homemaking, you will likely earn more social security benefits as a dependent wife (or widow) than you would by seeking extra work now. pikselstock/Shutterstock
Tom Margenau
Updated:

I will occasionally get questions, almost always from women who spent much of their adult life as homemakers and are now approaching their senior years, who tell me that they plan to get a job to start building up their own Social Security.

My usual message to them is that it’s probably not worth it. I’ve saved up some questions about this topic and will answer them today.

Tom Margenau
Tom Margenau
Author
Tom Margenau worked for 32 years in a variety of positions for the Social Security Administration before retiring in 2005. He has served as the director of SSA’s public information office, the chief editor of more than 100 SSA publications, a deputy press officer and spokesman, and a speechwriter for the commissioner of Social Security. For 12 years, he also wrote Social Security columns for local newspapers, and recently published the book “Social Security: Simple and Smart.” If you have a Social Security question, contact him at [email protected]
Related Topics