I hear you Patti....the stuff you learn from other people may not be 'factual', but the experiences that we share with them are real learning experiences. My DD became friends with a Japanese-Korean student last year while living in a 'boarding house' and it is surprising(?) how our university systems sort of take advantage of those $$$$ our foreign guests pay out to attend our schools. I assumed (THAT word) that we took their money and treated them better than we do. The student is a sweetheart, and has really paid her way without the kind if "exchange" student support like meeting American families and seeing the real environment outside of the university. She graduates next month and goes back to Japan and I hope that her total experience will have been memorable. DD has made a dear friend...I hope forever friend.

Jkom is right. You cannot collect two types of checks (benefits) at once. He could "potentially" receive widower's checks only if they were more than his own retirement checks , since they were legally married for over 10 years. . Sorry if this is bad news.

Retirement appears less and less likely for many people. Wages have barely improved in decades and the cost of living is going up, tempting some people to retire overseas. It could be done, but there are a ton of plans one has to make first. One can always retire abroad for much less. It's good to think that Social Security still pays benefits to overseas retired persons, though taxes on that income in a new home country may apply as well as to the United States.

Two questions and answers, copied and pasted from the Social Security Administration web site: Question How long must you be married to a spouse to collect benefits when the spouse dies? Answer A person can qualify for widow's or widower's benefits if he or she was married to the deceased worker for at least the 9 months just before the worker died. (A surviving divorced spouse must have been married to the worker for 10 years immediately before the date the final divorce became effective.) The 9-month duration-of-marriage requirement is waived if the insured person's death was accidental or if it occurred in the line of duty while he or she was a member of a uniformed service serving on active duty or if the widow(er) who was married to the insured person at the time of the insured's death was previously married to and divorced from him or her and the previous marriage had lasted 9 months; or if the worker was precluded from divorcing a prior institutionalized spouse under State law and married the widow(er) claimant within 60 days after the prior spouse's death. The first three of these exceptions to the 9-month duration-of-marriage requirement do not apply if at the time of the marriage the worker could not reasonably have been expected to live for 9 months. The insured person's death is defined as accidental only if he or she received bodily injuries through violent, external, and accidental means and, as a direct result of the bodily injuries and independent of all other causes, died within 3 months after the day on which the injuries were received. AS an alternative to the 9-month duration-of-marriage requirement and exceptions, a claimant may qualify as the worker's widow(er) if he or she:  Is the biological parent of the worker's biological child;  While married to the worker, legally adopted his/her child before the child attained age 18;  Is the parent of a child who was legally adopted by the worker while married to the claimant and before the child attained age 18; or  Was married to the worker at the time both of them legally adopted a child under age 18. Question If I receive widow's benefits and remarry, how does this affect my benefits? Answer In general, you cannot receive survivors benefits if you remarry before the age of 60 unless the latter marriage ends, whether by death, divorce, or annulment. If you remarry after age 60 (50 if disabled), you can still collect benefits on your former spouse's record. When you reach age 62 or older, you may get retirement benefits on the record of your new spouse if they are higher. Your remarriage would have no effect on the benefits being paid to your children.