I get dozens, sometimes hundreds, of questions emailed to me every day. As you might guess, many of them are the same questions I've been asked thousands of times in the past. And as I put those questions into a column, I worry about covering the same topic over and over again. I know I shouldn't feel guilty about this, because I always here from readers who tell me something like this: "I know you wrote about [name a Social Security topic] in a past column, but to tell the truth, I didn't pay enough attention to it at the time. Could you please go over it again?"

So today, I'm simply going to open my emails randomly and start answering as many as I can squeeze into the limited space of this column.

Q: I am about to turn 62. Can I take a spousal benefit on my husband's record and later switch to full benefits on my own account?

A: Not unless he's dead. Only a widow can take reduced benefits on one record and later switch to full benefits on another record. But as long as he is alive, you will have to take your own reduced retirement benefits at 62 and then see if that benefit can be supplemented up to about 35 percent of his rate. If you were to wait until your 66th birthday, then you could take half of your husband's Social Security until age 70, at which point you could switch to your own full retirement benefits, which would come with a 32 percent delayed retirement bonus.

Q: I have Part D of Medicare and am not sure I really need it. Can you help me decide?

A: As I've written many times in this column, I am a Social Security expert, but not much of a Medicare expert. I can tell you this. You generally don't need Part D, which is the prescription drug coverage part of Medicare, if you already have good insurance that pays for your medications.

And I can steer you in the right direction for more advice. There are Medicare counselors around the country who are called SHIPs. I think that stands for State Health Insurance Assistance Program counselors. You can find the SHIP in your area by going to Medicare's website: www.medicare.gov. On the homepage, look for the link labeled "Find someone to talk to" and then pick your state and click on "SHIP."

Q: I am 77 years old and still working. Each year, my monthly Social Security check goes up by about $5 because of these additional earnings. Does this sound right to you?

A: Once a year, Social Security automatically recalculates monthly checks for anyone who is getting retirement benefits and is still working. Sometimes that recalculation might result in a $20 per month increase. Sometimes it might be $5 increase. And many times, it will be no increase at all. It depends entirely on how your current earnings compare to the earnings used to figure your original Social Security benefit. If you're working as Warren Buffet's right-hand man, you might get a $20 dollar increase. If you are a greeter at Wal-Mart, you probably won't get anything. My hunch is you are getting the right amount. But if you are going to lose sleep over this, contact your local Social Security office and ask them to go over the calculation with you.

Q: I am 72 years old and have been married twice. I am getting widow's benefits from my second husband. I am thinking of remarrying my first husband. How will this impact my Social Security checks?

A: It won't have any impact at all. Normally, if a woman remarries, she can only get benefits from the man she will be marrying. But the law says a widow who remarries after age 60 can keep getting those benefits even though she is married to another man. You are potentially due one half of your first (and now new) husband's Social Security. But you'd only get that if it pays more than you are currently receiving as a widow, which is unlikely since the widow's rate (usually 100 percent) is much higher than a wife's rate.

Q: I have been getting disability benefits since age 57. I am about to turn 62. Can I file for real Social Security at that point?

A: You are already getting "real" Social Security! You just happen to be getting Social Security disability benefits instead of Social Security retirement benefits. When you reach age 66, you will be automatically switched from the disability program to the retirement program. But the transition will be transparent to you because your benefit amount will remain the same.

Q: My wife took her Social Security at 62. Several years later, I turned 65 and filed for my own Social Security. We are now in our 70s, and just learned that my wife could have been drawing a small supplemental spousal benefit on my account all along. Can we get retroactive benefits from Social Security?

A: Your wife certainly can now file for those extra spousal benefits, but I don't think she will get any retroactive payments. To qualify for back payments, she would have to prove that SSA made a mistake in denying her benefits in the first place. But the mistake was hers. Or to put that another way, the ball was in your court. It was your job to make yourselves aware of these extra benefits your wife was due and to file for them accordingly.

If you have a Social Security question, Tom Margenau has the answer. Contact him at [email protected]. To find out more about Tom Margenau and to read past columns and see features from other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.