Here is Virginia, the state has created a nice little income earner, Customized License Plates. We have almost 300, Special Interest License Plates, they include: colleges, the environment, water sports, the ocean, the bay, the mountains, various businesses, sport teams, fraternal organizations, clubs, military organizations, special interests, etc…
If you can get 450 to sign up, you can get almost anything under the sun… And as an incentive, if you can get 1,000 to sign up, your organization (if there is one…) will receive $15 of every $25 collected in fees…
Below are a few of the hundreds of options Virginia offers…
I have generated my own favorite below the standard issues… I vote for Car Talk!!!
I’m trying to remember where it was but I ran across a black or very dark plate that I had never seen before. I couldn’t read the script on the plate. I thought it might have been a tribe since a lot of the reservations have their own plates, but I don’t think it was. In the past, Iowa had black plates when Minnesota had yellow plates. Now we both are white except Iowa tax exempt.
I’m just not in to bumper stickers or personalized plates I guess. But my favorite standard plate has always been South Dakota with the Mount Rushmore faces on the plate. Great faces, great places. Minnesota can’t even get the number of lakes right with 10,000 lakes.
Occasionally, people will have different perceptions of colors. In some instances, it may be due to cataracts that are beginning to develop, and which can tend to give a more yellowish (goldish??) appearance to things that they see.
My old wacko boss used to refer to his two cars as “the yellow one” and “the red one”. Everyone else perceived his “yellow” car as being beige, and everyone else saw his “red” car as a dark burgundy color. Go figure!
I’m pretty sure that’s wrong. My understanding is the same as this:
“If your spouse dies and you have reached full retirement age, you’re eligible for 100% of their benefits.”
In other words, if you were being paid $1000/month, she $500/month, when you die her total payment would go to $1000/month.
@LoudThunder is correct. The spouse is entitled to 50% of the full retirement amount. Full retirement is defined for a specific age group. When I retired last September the full retirement age was and still is 67. MrsJT is not entitled to 50% of my retirement at 70 even though I waited until I had to start collecting at 70.
Nope. According to AARP:
" * Your spousal benefit is not affected by the age at which your husband or wife claimed Social Security benefits. It will always be based on your mate’s primary insurance amount. * With survivor benefits, if your late spouse boosted his or her Social Security payment by waiting past FRA to file, your survivor benefit would also increase."
Edit - the above applies, given the ages involved. Also from AARP:
“How much of that amount you are entitled to depends on your age when you [the surviving spouse] file. The proportion rises from 71.5 percent if you claim survivor benefits at 60 (50 if you are disabled) to 100 percent if you wait until your full retirement age”
My dad (87) passed away in January of this year (2023), Mom’s (86) SSA has always been a little more then Dad’s SSA and since Mom’s SSA was more than Dad’s, Mom kept her SSA, But if Dad’s had been more than Mom’s SSA she could opt to take Dad’s SSA instead but NOT both, it is an either or… But if Mom would have passed 1st then Dad would have taken Mom’s SSA amount instead of His… This is as of 2023 in Tennessee and both at full retirement age…
Don’t know if that helps any or not…
BTW the survivors benefits payout for the funeral (or whatever it is called) is only $255.00 total one time payment… Although every little bit helps, $255 is a joke compared to what it actually cost…
So when Dad passed, the ONLY thing Mom got was a one time $255.00 payment from SSA and Dad’s SSA retirement check STOPPED immediately…
And just to keep it automotive related… It doesn’t change if you go in a car or your bed, same end results…
We’re getting a little off track but when I called them to report the death of my dad, they wanted me to make an appointment to call them for the death benefit. It’s been 20 years so I’m a little fuzzy on the details but ended up just telling them to kiss off and keep their money. I’m on the phone, just transfer me, I don’t need to make an appointment to make a phone call, or leave they/them a message and he, she, or it can call me. I’m open 24/7.
Looking through his tackle box and found his civil air patrol I’d and work award during the war. Not sure what to do with all this stuff yet, but I have every newspaper clipping for every track meet. Time goes fast. Heh heh. Had a $10 bill in his wallet for emergencies. Guess I’m from the same tree except I keep a $100 bill for emergencies now.
Here’s what SSA has to say about it. In short, the spouse is eligible for 50% of the deceased spouses primary insurance amount. The PIA is the benefit at normal retirement age and is not increased for delayed retirement.
That’s if the spouse is alive (“When a worker files for retirement benefits, the worker’s spouse may be eligible for a benefit based on the worker’s earnings.”). I thought the discussion was when the spouse died.
TWO POINTS:
Some people here are confusing the issues around spouses. There are more than one kind: married, divorced and widowed. Some SS rules are based upon age differences. Changing laws mean newer retirees may have different rules. Don’t expect one simple “fits-all” answer here.
Secondly, if you consider two couples in identical situations. A spouse dies after delaying SS until age 70. One surviving spouse started benefits early, the other never started any. Wouldn’t it be the natural expectation that the early starter should expect a lifetime smaller payment based upon the deceased’s record?
In those two situations if both of the surviving spouses were past full retirement age they would each be entitled to the larger of their benefit or their deceased spouse’s benefit, regardless of when the surviving spouse filed for their own benefit. This is confirmed by both the AARP web site and the SSA web site.
@cdaquila - you may want to come in and delete all the social security-related posts here. Not car-related.
Well now that we are fully off topic but fitting for the number of geezers on here, both my wife and I began collecting early, on our own accounts. It was always my belief that if I went to the happy hunting ground, my payment would stop, but hers would continue as it was. And vica versa. Doesn’t really matter but if I’m wrong, I should mention it.
Well about the same except mine is slightly higher because I made more money than her and started working at 15 instead of 22. Not a big deal. I’m actually more concerned about oil changes, getting the grass cut, and clearing the snow out of the driveway.
