I was born in April 1959. I want my Social Security benefits to start at my full retirement age of 66 and 10 months, which I reach in February. I know payments come one month behind. So when I apply, do I enter February as my first month or March?

You should indicate February as your starting month for Social Security benefits. Social Security payments for a given month come the following month, as you note, so your February benefit will be deposited into your bank account in March. The question in the Social Security retirement application about when you want benefits to begin refers to your first month of eligibility, not the month you will get your first check.

My husband started receiving Social Security retirement benefits at 62. He is now 68 years old. I am about to file for my own retirement benefits. I made more money than he did, so my Social Security check will be ­significantly higher. I am sure he will be due spousal benefits based on my record. How do we go about claiming those benefits?

Your husband can file for spousal benefits when you file your retirement application, either at ssa.gov or by calling Social Security at 800-772-1213. Calculating a spousal benefit can get complicated, depending on how old the spouse is when he claims it and when he claimed retirement benefits. But in your case, the formula happens to be simple. Social Security will take his full retirement age (FRA) benefit and subtract that from one-half of your FRA benefit. Any remainder will be added to his current benefit. Let’s say your FRA rate is $3,000, his is $1,000, and he’s getting $700 in reduced benefits. Subtracting his FRA from half of yours leaves $500. Adding that to his current benefit will raise his total benefits to $1,200.

I am a 64-year-old widow, and I haven’t remarried. I work full-time, making up to $200,000 per year. I might retire sometime between ages 65 and 67, my full retirement age. Could I file for widow’s benefits now and let my own benefit continue to grow? My husband died at 65 without claiming. What would my widow’s rate be?

First things first: As long as you are under age 67 and earn the kind of money you are making, you are not due any Social Security for which you might qualify—neither survivor benefits nor those based on your own record. The rules say $1 must be deducted from your benefits for every $2 you earn over a specified limit, currently $23,400.

But once you retire or reach age 67, whichever comes first, these earnings-penalty rules go away. As you mentioned, you could file for survivor benefits first. If you file at 67, you would get a full widow’s rate—in your case, the amount your husband would have received had he filed at FRA. If you file at a younger age, your survivor benefit would be reduced by roughly one-half of 1 percent for each month you start those benefits before age 67.

Later, you could switch to your own retirement benefits, which would grow at the rate of two-thirds of 1 percent for each month you delay filing for them between ages 67 and 70. If you wait until age 70 to make the switch, for example, you’d get an extra 28 percent added to your FRA monthly benefit.