Some Oddball Questions

Tom Margenau
Tue, 03 Feb 2026 23:00:00 -0800
Lifestyle

As I've pointed out before, I usually find myself answering the same questions over and over again. But I've saved up a couple of oddball questions — and here they are. But first, I want to make it clear I am not calling the people who emailed me the questions "oddballs." However, I am saying the questions they asked were odd — or at least out of the ordinary.

Q: I recently signed up for my Social Security after working for more than 40 years. I've often wondered this. I know that once you have 40 quarters of coverage, you are eligible for Social Security retirement benefits. I bet I had those 40 quarters way back when I was maybe 30 years old. Could I have quit working back then and still gotten a Social Security benefit someday? And if so, why didn't I just do that?

A: Interesting questions. Before I answer them, let me clarify a term for some readers. You talked about "quarters of coverage." That's an old term that hasn't been used in years. Younger readers might know that as "credits." And here is why.
Updated: Wed Feb 04, 2026

As I've pointed out before, I usually find myself answering the same questions over and over again. But I've saved up a couple of oddball questions — and here they are. But first, I want to make it clear I am not calling the people who emailed me the questions "oddballs." However, I am saying the questions they asked were odd — or at least out of the ordinary.

Q: I recently signed up for my Social Security after working for more than 40 years. I've often wondered this. I know that once you have 40 quarters of coverage, you are eligible for Social Security retirement benefits. I bet I had those 40 quarters way back when I was maybe 30 years old. Could I have quit working back then and still gotten a Social Security benefit someday? And if so, why didn't I just do that?

A: Interesting questions. Before I answer them, let me clarify a term for some readers. You talked about "quarters of coverage." That's an old term that hasn't been used in years. Younger readers might know that as "credits." And here is why.

When Social Security first started, the law said that if you worked and paid Social Security taxes on earnings of $50 or more within a calendar quarter (January-March; April-June; etc.), you got one "quarter of coverage" applied to your Social Security account. And then the law further said that once you had 40 of those quarters, you were then "insured" for Social Security retirement benefits.

But about 50 years or so ago, they did away with the calendar quarter business and changed the rules to say you got one "credit" for each specified amount of money you made, not to exceed four credits in one year. That specified amount goes up slightly every year. For example, in 2026, you get one credit for each $1,890 you earn. But again, no more than four credits can be earned in a year. So that means in 2026, once you make $7,560, you have earned the maximum four Social Security credits you can get.

Here is an interesting way of looking at that. For most of us, that means you probably have to work about a month or more before you earn four Social Security credits. But for a billionaire like Elon Musk, for example, he probably earns his four credits five minutes after he walks into his Space X offices on Jan. 2 of each year!

OK. So that clarifies why "quarters of coverage" and "credits" are the same thing. Now, to answer your question about quitting at age 30 and getting your Social Security.

You could potentially do that. But you would end up with an awfully small Social Security benefit. That benefit will be based on your average income over your highest 35 years of earnings. So if you end up with only 10 years of earnings on your record, that means they would have to factor 25 years of "zero" earnings into your Social Security computation. And that would drag down your average earnings, and thus your Social Security benefit, to a very low amount.

Q: My wife and I are both in our late 50s and starting to think about Social Security. I have had well-paid jobs all my life and always paid the maximum into Social Security. My wife spent a big chunk of our 35-year marriage staying home and taking care of the kids. She just barely has her 40 quarters. Can I take the next 10 years or so, transferring my earnings to my wife's Social Security record, thus building up her Social Security account? I figure we could do this because we file a joint tax return.

A: You can't do that. How you file a tax return has nothing to do with the assignment of Social Security earnings to individual records.

And even if you could do such a thing, you wouldn't want to do it. Why? Because your wife will end up getting higher Social Security benefits as a spouse on your record than she ever would get on her own account. Let's say your benefit will be $4,000 per month and your wife's own small retirement benefit will be $500. Assuming you start benefits at your full retirement age, she would be due a spousal benefit of $1,500 on your account to supplement her own $500 benefit.

Now, let's say you were able to give some of your earnings to your wife for several years. That might boost her own benefit to maybe $800 per month. But she is still going to end up with $2,000 in total benefits ($800 on her record and $1,300 from you). So why bother trying to boost her own benefit?

Q: I am 73 years old and have been getting Social Security since I turned 66. I just stopped working. I started working when I was 13. One thing that has always bugged me is that the earnings I had between ages 13 and 18 never showed up on my Social Security record. I didn't make much back then, but at least it was something and those earnings probably would have increased my Social Security benefit. I have been fighting for years to get those earnings included in my Social Security records. I think I've hired a half dozen lawyers over the years to help me fix this. And still nothing has happened! Can you help me?

A: I can help you by telling you to stop obsessing over this and to stop wasting money on lawyers. Even if you got those old earnings added to your Social Security records, they wouldn't increase your benefit by a single nickel.

Why? Because your retirement benefit was based on your highest 35 years of earnings. And for most people, their highest 35 years are their last 35 years. You said you filed for retirement benefits when you were 66. So it's a pretty good bet that your original Social Security benefit was based on your earnings between ages 31 and 66. So that means any earnings you had before that, especially the paltry money you made as a teenager, would never be used in your retirement benefit calculation.

One other note. You said you just stopped working at age 73. There is a pretty good chance that each year's worth of earnings you had between age 66 and 73 bumped up your benefit by a little bit. How and why that happens is WAY too complicated to explain in what's left of today's column. But if you get my book, "Social Security - Simple and Smart," there is a whole chapter that explains how earnings after retirement may (or may not) increase your Social Security benefit.