#124 - Social Security Rules Women May Not Know: Survivor Benefits, Retirement Age & Taxes

Eric Blake: Welcome to another episode of the Simply Retirement Podcast. I am your host, Eric Blake. Joining me once again is Wendy McConnell. Wendy, how are you?

Wendy McConnell: I'm good. How are you?

Eric Blake: I'm very well. So as you know, I'm a self-proclaimed Social Security nerd, and I'd even say a Wendy-proclaimed Social Security nerd on many occasions.

Wendy McConnell: I didn't say just Social Security, but please continue.

Eric Blake: Oh, okay. Fair enough. Fair enough. But as will happen from time to time, that's a good thing, right?

Wendy McConnell: Yes, it is.

Eric Blake: And I've been wanting to have this... I thought this would be an interesting episode for quite a while, and a recent conversation was kind of the trigger for doing this episode. And it was more around some of the origination of Social Security, but I would call... I won't go so far as to say fun facts.

Wendy McConnell: Okay.

Eric Blake: Interesting facts. How's that?

Wendy McConnell: I will take it.

Eric Blake: I might be the only one that thinks they're fun, but that's okay. But it stemmed from a recent conversation I had with a lady who reached out to me, and she's been following this for a while.

She lost her husband a few years back, and through some of our conversations we've talked about Social Security strategy. She's not actually a client, but we've had some communication. She follows the podcast, things like that. And her intention was, once she reached full retirement age, she was going to apply for her survivor benefit from her husband passing away, but she's still working.

And what happened is she gets the application, everything goes well, she gets her first check, and all of a sudden, in month two, she gets this notice that she's not going to receive any checks for a while. And of course, she's getting different responses from the Social Security Administration, which can be extremely frustrating when you talk to two or three different people and you get different responses. So who does she call? She calls me, the Social Security nerd.

Wendy McConnell: You have a reputation.

Eric Blake: So she leaves us a voicemail. We set up a time to talk, and she's walking me through what's going on. So she turned 66 and six months back in, I think it was June. That's when she applied. Everything went well. She got everything in place. She gets a first check. Month two, no check, and she also gets a notice that says, "You're going to be subject to the earnings test." That's why she's not going to get that benefit. She's making too much money. But again, keep in mind she reached full retirement age at 66 and six months.

Now, here's where the confusing part comes in, and where I was able to explain the scenario to her. Her 66 and six months was full retirement age for survivor benefits, but she was born in 1959, so full retirement age for her own benefit is 66 and 10 months. So there are two different full retirement ages for some people. The earnings test is based on full retirement age for your own benefit, so 66 and 10 months for her. So at full retirement age for survivor benefits, 66 and six months, she starts receiving benefits, then gets notified that she's going to be losing her benefits for a few months until she turns 66 and 10 months, and then it'll pick up again.

Wendy McConnell: Well, it'll pick up because she really never got them, right?

Eric Blake: As we've talked about with how the earnings test works, if you're still working and you receive Social Security benefits before full retirement age, your benefit could get reduced, or in her case, fully eliminated for that period of time. And then once you reach full retirement age, it gets recalculated back into your new benefit from that point forward.

Wendy McConnell: Okay. That sounds way too fair for the government.

Eric Blake: Well, but the tricky part was, in her particular case, and for several other people, there are two different full retirement ages. There's one full retirement age for survivor benefits, and one full retirement age for your own benefit. But the earnings test itself is based on when you actually reach your own full retirement age. So for those four months, she's going to lose benefits.

Wendy McConnell: Could she have just waited to file then, or...

Eric Blake: I mean, she could, but she didn't know.

Wendy McConnell: She didn't know, right.

Eric Blake: Right. And the other tricky part is the Social Security Administration is communicating the wrong thing as well.

Wendy McConnell: Mm.

Eric Blake: So that's really where the confusion becomes really immense in this situation, right? It's not understanding, well, yes, I took it at full retirement age. Why shouldn't I get my whole benefit? Well, that's because she's still working, and after four months, she'll be fine. Everything will get recalculated and she'll move forward from there. But again, it kind of led me to, what are some of the interesting facts about Social Security?

And that was one of them, the fact that, again, there are two full retirement ages for certain people. This stems back to when the last big Social Security change happened back in 1983, when they extended the full retirement age to what's now age 67 for those born in 1960 or later. But the reality is, for survivor benefits, it's 1962 or later. So it was all part of this progression of going from 65 to 66 and ultimately to 67, but survivor benefits have been changed and adjusted over the years. So you can start receiving survivor benefits as early as age 60, right? Which is two years earlier than you can start receiving your own retirement benefit.

Wendy McConnell: Right.

Eric Blake: And so again, just one of those interesting facts that has evolved throughout the years that I think would be helpful to cover. Some, again, are not necessarily going to be impacting your decisions, but I think it's helpful to kind of understand the history of the progression of some of these different Social Security features over the years. That's really what kind of inspired this episode.

And so, going back a little bit farther, the next thing I was going to share, and some people may be aware of this, but the Social Security system actually originated in 1935. It actually celebrated its 91st birthday. August 14th was when it was actually voted into law. And the one thing that was interesting to me, and that triggered an awareness of that, was it was actually the same year that my grandmother was born.

Wendy McConnell: Oh.

Eric Blake: It was voted into law. President Roosevelt was the president at the time, and originally it was designed specifically for providing retirement benefits for workers. If you got to the point where, for whatever reason, you could not work, this was obviously something of a safety net at that point. Now it's evolved to much more than that, but that's how it started.

I think one other interesting thing that I wanted to point out, and you might find this interesting as well, is that Frances Perkins was very important. She was actually part of the development of what the Social Security system was going to look like. She was the first woman ever to serve in a United States presidential cabinet, and she chaired the President's Committee on Economic Security and was involved throughout the research, the hearings, and the recommendations that led to the Social Security Act of 1935.

Right? So we talk a lot about the impact and the importance of making decisions for women when it comes to Social Security, and the longevity, and all these different things. I thought it was somewhat interesting that a woman was heavily involved in determining how all this was actually going to work.

Wendy McConnell: She went to the president. She's like, "We need to do this, this, and this." He's like, "All right, go ahead. Do it if you can."

Eric Blake: Right. Well, so yeah, I thought it was very interesting that a woman played a very critical role in getting this thing in place, and we always talk about the importance that Social Security plays in the future, and the longevity, and the income that women have, especially outliving men in most cases.

Wendy McConnell: Mm-hmm.

Eric Blake: Next thing I want to talk about, the first Social Security benefit was 17 cents.

Wendy McConnell: Okay.

Eric Blake: And it was a lump sum. Now, this is one that actually was new to me. I always knew Ida May Fuller was actually the first monthly recipient, but the first actual checks, when it was voted into law, started as just lump sums during the Social Security startup period from 1937 through 1939. These were one-time payments, and these were the only benefits being paid at the time.

And then it was 1940 when the first recurring monthly check started going out, and that was Ida May Fuller. She started receiving this benefit in January 1940. She was 65 years old. Her monthly payment was $22.54. Before she retired, she had paid a total of $24.75 in Social Security taxes, right? She died when she was 100 years old, in January 1975.

Wendy McConnell: Yep.

Eric Blake: Right? So over 35 years, she received a total of $22,888.92, right? So she got her money back, at least.

Wendy McConnell: Right. Because the people that start it always make out. It's the people at the end that have the trouble.

Eric Blake: And I think, again, it's one of those things that we talk a lot about, again, longevity and living a long life, and how if you're going to get the most out of Social Security, the best thing you can do is just live a long time. That's a good place to start, right?

Wendy McConnell: Oh, no problem.

Eric Blake: That's how it works.

Wendy McConnell: I did just finish my workout, so there's that.

Eric Blake: There you go. Well, and so, again, I was talking about how the calculations for Social Security would be so much easier if we just knew how long you were going to live.

Wendy McConnell: A lot of things would be easier.

Eric Blake: Right. Well, and here's something else that, again, is applicable to our audience. Women could claim retirement benefits at 62 before men could.

Wendy McConnell: Oh, really?

Eric Blake: Yep. So we always hear that the earliest you can file for benefits these days is 62, but women actually had access to that first. They gained the option to begin reduced retirement benefits at age 62 back in 1956, right? And reduced spousal benefits also became available to women at 62, right?

So when you think about where we were at in 1935 and the labor division, right, men being the primary breadwinners at that point, how would we start working in some of these other benefits, or giving women the opportunity to access some of these resources and some of these benefits as well, depending on what their own work history was or whether they were stay-at-home spouses, those types of things, right? Men didn't actually receive that same early retirement option until 1961, so about five years later.

Wendy McConnell: Okay.

Eric Blake: Because again, we think today 62 is the earliest retirement age for everyone, but that wasn't always the case, right? And age 62 also played an interesting role in the development of survivor benefits, right? So that was one of the things that we start thinking about when all these adjustments took place.

At first, when the Social Security system first rolled out, all the benefits were based on age 65. And then women got access as early as age 62, and then eventually men got that. And then we also talk about survivor benefits. Again, that was originally at 65 as well. It was reduced to 62 in 1956, and then reduced again to 60, which is what it is today, in 1965.

Wendy McConnell: That's the survivor benefit.

Eric Blake: Right, the survivor benefit, right. Which again, back to my original conversation I had with the lady earlier, that's where that difference comes in. So full retirement age for your own retirement benefit is 67 if you were born in 1960 or later, but for survivor benefits, it's 1962 or later. It's still 67, but not until you're born in 1962 or later, where both ages equal 67. Both full retirement ages actually equal 67.

Wendy McConnell: Mm-hmm.

Eric Blake: Right? One of the things I thought was interesting was looking back at when a woman's Social Security taxes provided less family protection. Benefits for husbands and widowers were not added until 1950, years after benefits were provided for wives and widows, right? So again, we think about where we were at back in those days. Originally, there actually weren't survivor benefits for widowers, and even then, men generally had to prove that their wife provided at least half of their support before they could qualify on her record.

Wendy McConnell: Okay.

Eric Blake: And a wife or widow did not have to prove the same dependency on her husband. I guess you could say it was probably assumed back in those days, right? That meant that a woman could work and pay the same Social Security taxes as a man while receiving less family protection in return. And then in 1977, the Supreme Court ruled that the different treatment was unconstitutional, and that's when Congress removed the dependency requirement for husbands and widowers. So basically everybody was the same across the board at that point.

Wendy McConnell: Okay.

Eric Blake: And if we think about the widow's benefit, when monthly widow's benefits were first added, the full benefit was actually 75% of the deceased worker's benefit.

Wendy McConnell: Well, that changed.

Eric Blake: That changed. And I've seen some of these percentages actually apply in certain cases for clients and in some of the conversations I've had with women. It was then increased to 82.5% in 1961, and then in 1972 it increased again, so that a widow or widower claiming at survivor full retirement age could receive as much as 100%, right?

But here's the surprising part. That old 82.5% figure did not completely disappear. Today it basically serves as a level of protection in case a spouse files early, say at 62. Well, if I'm filing for my own retirement benefit at age 62, I'm taking a significantly reduced benefit from what I could have received at full retirement age. But as we've talked about in many episodes, that also impacts the potential survivor benefit.

And so where that 82.5% comes in today is, again, it basically gives a level of protection to the surviving spouse if the higher-earning spouse filed at 62 and then passed away shortly thereafter. So it might be as little as 70% of their full retirement age benefit if I start my own benefit at 62, but it might get stepped up for the surviving spouse to that minimum of 82.5% if the higher-earning spouse starts early and then passes away shortly thereafter.

Hi, everyone. It's Eric. Hope you're enjoying today's episode. I want to take just a quick moment to share a resource I think you'll find really valuable. If you've ever asked yourself, "How much is my Social Security reduced if I file early?" Or, "Am I eligible for benefits as a spouse, surviving spouse, or even after divorce?" You're not alone. That's why we created our ultimate guide to women's Social Security success. It includes six of our most popular Social Security guides and checklists for women. Inside, you'll find a 2026 quick reference guide with key Social Security amounts and limits to be aware of, along with five additional guides and checklists to help you make more informed decisions about eligibility and filing strategies. You can download it for free at womenssocialsecurityguide.com. Keep it handy wherever you may be in the decision-making process. Now back to the episode.

Now there's another number that has come into play in certain situations. That is what's called the survivor marriage requirement. So basically there's a nine-month requirement. You have to be married at least nine months before the surviving spouse can be eligible for a survivor benefit should their spouse pass away, right? It used to be a year, which is still the case for spousal benefits. You have to be married at least a year to receive spousal benefits. And originally, that's the way it was across the board.

So for any spouse-related benefit, it was 12 months. And then in 1967, Congress reduced it from 12 months to nine months. And I actually heard recently on another advisor podcast that it was somehow connected to the nine-month pregnancy timeframe.

Wendy McConnell: Hmm.

Eric Blake: But I could not find anything related to that. So I don't think that's it. I think that basically was just negotiation. That was just Congress trying to come up with some shorter window of time. And actually, the purpose is also basically saying that if the worker could reasonably have been expected to live at least nine months when the marriage began, but died unexpectedly in an accident or something like that, then potentially that nine-month requirement could be waived.

But ultimately, it was designed to prevent people from saying, "Well, I know this person's going to pass away. We can quickly get married so that I would then receive their survivor benefit," knowing that they were going to be passing away in a short amount of time. That's really where that originated from.

Wendy McConnell: All right.

Eric Blake: Then we start talking about another important factor that we've talked about, again, in many episodes, and that is how divorced spouse benefits developed. So before 1965, a woman generally could not receive retirement-age spousal or survivor benefits based only on a former marriage. Divorced spouse and surviving divorced spouse benefits were added in 1965, but the original rules were much more restrictive than what we see today.

Wendy McConnell: Oh.

Eric Blake: When they first started, the marriage had to be at least 20 years.

Wendy McConnell: Right. Gotcha.

Eric Blake: And they had to meet those financial dependency requirements, right? Where today it's 10 years. Congress removed that dependency requirement in 1972, and then in 1977 it reduced the required length of marriage from 20 years down to 10 years, right? Which obviously represented a pretty significant expansion, but it also created one of the sharpest dividing lines anywhere in Social Security. When we're talking about those benefits based on an ex-spouse, that 10 years becomes so critical. In general, a marriage lasting nine years and 11 months does not qualify for anything.

That can mean losing ex-spouse benefits, and that can mean losing survivor benefits based on that ex-spouse. So that 10 years really becomes critical, right? And so as we think about making decisions and where the Social Security rules evolved from, we've even talked about the fact that you can have multiple ex-marriages and multiple ex-spouses being eligible to receive benefits based on an ex-spouse. Well, a 20-year requirement frequently reduces the number of people that might be eligible, right?

Because we've talked about how, you know, at 10 years, there might be somebody out there with two, three, four ex-spouses all receiving benefits off of that same spouse, that same earner. Right. Right? So yeah, at the 20-year mark, that makes it a little less likely to happen. But today there are a number of cases where that is accurate.

Wendy McConnell: Okay.

Eric Blake: There's also one that, again, impacts clients that have gone through a divorce, and that is the fact that they changed the requirement that the ex-spouse has to have filed for somebody else to file on their benefits. So if you're talking about the requirements for receiving ex-spousal benefits, the only requirements today are that the other spouse be at least 62 and that the divorce was at least two years ago. And if I was the lower-earning spouse, I could then file for benefits based on that ex-spouse, whether they had filed or not, right?

Well, if you're married, that's not necessarily the case. The higher-earning spouse has to have filed before I, as the lower earner, could file off of their record. Well, obviously when we're talking about divorce, we never know what the circumstances are going to be behind that, so they don't want to force dependency, where one spouse is in financial need, the other spouse knows that, and they say, "Well, I'm just not going to file, because I don't want you to be able to file off of my record." Right? So that was eliminated, right? That actually started in 1985.

Wendy McConnell: Okay.

Eric Blake: Then we also have the rule of remarriage on or after age 60, which is the current rule. So remarrying at age 60 or later generally does not prevent you from receiving survivor benefits on a deceased spouse's or a former spouse's record, right? But that protection did not arrive for everyone at the same time. The rules were broadened for widows in 1977 and were effective in 1979. Similar protection for surviving divorced spouses began in 1984.

So it's kind of this progression of realizing that as time evolved, unfortunately, divorce became more frequent. So how can we put rules in place that are going to help those former spouses, those ex-spouses who may have been financially dependent on a higher earner? And that's where the requirement comes in to receive survivor benefits. You could still do it, even if it was an ex-spouse, but you couldn't remarry before the age of 60.

Wendy McConnell: Yeah.

Eric Blake: There's a lot of conversation now about what's going to happen to the Social Security system. It's going to be depleted by 2032 or '34, whenever, depending on what you're reading.

Wendy McConnell: It better not.

Eric Blake: Right. But I think that's one of the things also to keep in mind. We've gone through these scenarios before. It's not the first time. We touched on this a little bit as far as the expansion of full retirement age to 67. Well, that actually happened back in 1983. That's when Congress approved the gradual increase toward age 67. So full retirement age reaches 67 for those born in 1960 or later. Survivor full retirement age follows a little bit different schedule, and it does not reach 67 until the birth year of 1962, right? So that makes 1961 the final year of birth for which retirement and survivor full retirement ages are going to be different.

Again, that's basically what impacted her in the original story, the fact that based on her year of birth, she's got two different full retirement ages for survivor benefits and her own benefit, right? She didn't make a mistake. For what she knew, she was actually making the right decision.

Wendy McConnell: Mm-hmm.

Eric Blake: And she was also getting incorrect information in certain cases from the Social Security Administration. I'm going to pull back the curtain just a little bit, and I told her this too, and we kind of said it jokingly. I'm like, "Okay, you've got a financial advisor. You spoke to the Social Security Administration, but who did you call when you had this question?" Maybe it's time to think about what your relationships are when it comes to your retirement planning here.

Wendy McConnell: That's what I was thinking too. I'm like, "You're doing all this for free?"

Eric Blake: Social Security's so complex.

Wendy McConnell: Oh, yeah.

Eric Blake: It's kind of one of those things where I view Social Security as simply a way you can use to establish a relationship and say, "Okay, let's help people make better decisions when it comes to this." Again, regardless of whether they work with us or not. It's so frustrating, especially when you're dealing with it as a result of losing a spouse. And I can tell when I talk to her, she's still dealing with a lot of those emotions of having to make all these decisions on her own, and that's such an important part of just what gives her peace of mind and keeps those steps moving forward.

Wendy McConnell: Sure. Yeah.

Eric Blake: So that's really the way I think about it. When it comes to Social Security, if I can give you the right guidance, or at least help you ask the right questions, then that's really what I would love to be able to do, especially with the unfortunate situation of getting multiple answers from the Social Security Administration.

Wendy McConnell: Mm-hmm. Yeah. It's the craziest thing that even for the Social Security Administration, it's too complex for them.

Eric Blake: Well, yeah, absolutely. And you're getting this letter saying, "Well, again, you're not going to get a benefit this time, so good luck."

Wendy McConnell: Right. And they don't make it easy to get in touch.

Eric Blake: That is very true, and she'd actually had multiple conversations. She'd had multiple phone appointments trying to figure out, "What the heck is going on here? I don't understand. I'm at full retirement age, so why am I losing my income here?" Right? And she's earning a reasonably good income. But again, you think, "Well, once I reach full retirement age, there shouldn't be any problems with me filing."

Wendy McConnell: Right.

Eric Blake: Not always the case.

Wendy McConnell: I see. Yep.

Eric Blake: The next thing I was going to talk to you about is COLAs, so cost of living increases. That's one of the things people don't necessarily realize. We haven't always had those increases. I've talked a lot about how, when we're talking about retirement income, one of the, if not the only single source of lifetime guaranteed income that actually increases with inflation that many women have is Social Security. But we didn't always have those cost of living increases.

So using our original example, Ida May Fuller, who was the first monthly recipient, for the first 10 years of receiving benefits, she got the same exact amount. And then we finally got the cost of living increases, which make a significant impact. If you think about longevity today and the way Social Security is used now, over a 30-year retirement, if you didn't get that cost of living increase, that could be significant for so many people, especially those that are very financially dependent on Social Security these days. People like to complain about the Social Security cost of living increase, that it's not enough, which is completely reasonable, but it's much better than zero.

Wendy McConnell: Yeah.

Eric Blake: Right?

Wendy McConnell: Sure is.

Eric Blake: Then we also wanted to talk about when Social Security became taxable. I think that's also something that, I won't call it interesting. It's interesting to me simply because of all the conversation we've recently had about whether Social Security benefits should get taxed, and how we can make Social Security benefits tax-free. Well, Social Security taxation started in 1984.

Wendy McConnell: Hmm.

Eric Blake: Right? The provisional income thresholds that are used to determine how much of your Social Security is going to be taxed have never changed since they were originally implemented. The original provisional income thresholds were $25,000 for an individual and $32,000 for a married couple. The provisional income formula that's used to determine whether part of your Social Security is going to be taxable or not is generally going to include gross income, things like IRA distributions or employment income. It includes tax-exempt interest, like municipal bonds, and then half of your Social Security. And again, the original numbers were $25,000 and $32,000. They've never been adjusted for inflation.

Wendy McConnell: Okay.

Eric Blake: Right? So if your provisional income is higher than those numbers, some percentage of your Social Security benefit is going to be taxable. So even if we just use a basic 3% inflation rate going back to 1984, those thresholds would be $87,000 for an individual and $111,000 for a married couple. So many, many more people would not have to pay taxes on their Social Security if it had kept up with inflation, right?

And now we're having all these conversations about this new age 65-plus deduction, and how it's reducing the number of people that have to pay taxes on their Social Security. Well, would that not have been a much easier solution? Just say, "Okay, let's increase that provisional income number. Just keep up with inflation." How many fewer people would have to pay tax on their Social Security if we just simply did that?

Wendy McConnell: Mm.

Eric Blake: But now it's become kind of one of those political hot buttons.

Wendy McConnell: Isn't everything?

Eric Blake: Yes. And I actually wanted to share that we did an episode specifically on how Social Security gets taxed, which I think might be helpful for people. That was episode 54, How Social Security Gets Taxed and the Things That You Need to Know.

Another inflation-related item that I get a question about a lot is why they even do this for the amount that it is, and that's the $255 death benefit. So if you have a spouse that passes away, Social Security pays a lump sum death benefit of $250, right? Which is not much, not enough to do much of anything, right?

Wendy McConnell: No, not really.

Eric Blake: Again, another number that has not changed. At the time, the maximum monthly benefit used in the calculation had reached $85. The death benefit was calculated as three times that amount. So $85 multiplied by three gets you $255. Congress placed a $255 cap on the payment in 1954, and it has never been changed since then.

Wendy McConnell: All right. So nobody can really count on that.

Eric Blake: Exactly. But again, I get the question, "Well, I got this $255. What's it for? What am I supposed to do with it?" Well, that's your lump sum. That's a, you know...

Wendy McConnell: Is that taxed?

Eric Blake: It is not taxed. Okay, that is a tax-free number, yeah.

Wendy McConnell: Woo.

Eric Blake: So those are some of the key points I wanted to share. Just a little bit of background on where some of the numbers we hear about today come from. When we're doing planning, we always talk about how important Social Security planning is, and how big of a role it plays in retirement income, especially for women, whether it's because of a divorce, whether it's because you've been widowed, or even if it's just simply you on your own trying to make the right decisions.

I thought I would share this. Again, I don't know if you would consider it fun, but I think it is important, because I think it reinforces what you need to understand about the rules today in order to make the most educated decisions. And I wanted to share just a few episodes that we've done in the past that can give you straightforward answers on a lot of these issues.

Back in episode 37, we did the top five questions on Social Security survivor benefits. I think that's a really important episode. That's probably been one of our most popular episodes, as a matter of fact. In episode 47, we talked about three game-changing Social Security strategies that I think are very important to understand if your situation changes once you've filed for Social Security. It could be as simple as saying, "Okay, can I withdraw my application if my income situation or my life situation changes?" We also did episode 24, Understanding Spousal and Ex-Spousal Social Security Benefits. I think that's really critical.

We've kind of touched on it in this episode, but back in episode 109, we talked about Social Security rules that no longer apply, and I think that's important given what we've talked about today. So many of these rules still get shared as if they are still applicable today. In many cases, of course, they're not. So I think that's a really important episode. And the last one, specifically around divorce, was episode 63, Social Security Planning After Divorce, and some of the crucial rules and mistakes to avoid. We'll include all those links in our show notes at simplyretirementpodcast.com.

So okay, Wendy, I've got to ask you. Was this fun? Was it interesting? What are your thoughts about that?

Wendy McConnell: Some of it was interesting.

Eric Blake: Some of it not so much.

Wendy McConnell: Some of it not so much. But you know, again, I'm still awake.

Eric Blake: I'll put that in the positive checkbox, right?

Wendy McConnell: There you go.

Eric Blake: Well, awesome. Well, thank you so much for joining me as always, Wendy. Please be sure to follow the podcast so you are notified of new episodes when they are released.

And until next time, please remember, retirement is not the end of the road. It's the start of a new journey.