I'm 64 & plan to retire at 67 in two years & start collecting SS plus a state pension. My wife will be only 50 and has a good job with a large company with a 401k, plus stock options and makes a higher salary. She was self-employed for years while I have paid into SS continually my whole career. Are there any special tactics when two spouses are of significant different ages in maximizing SS?

Hi,

There doesn't appear to be any special strategy to employ in your particular case. If your wife was older or entitled to disability benefits, you would have the option of filing just for spousal benefits at age 66 while letting your own benefit amount grow until age 70.

One thing to consider, given the fairly wide gap in your ages, is that your wife would statistically have a high probability of becoming a widow at some point. The sooner you start drawing your benefits, the lower her potential widow's benefit rate on your record would be. To maximize both your monthly benefit and your wife's potential widow's rate, you should probably delay filing for benefits until age 70 if you can swing it financially. That would not be as important, though, if you expect that your wife's Social Security benefit on her own account will be higher than yours, even if you wait until age 70 to start drawing.

You may wish to run the maximization software available on this website in order to obtain a full analysis of your filing options.

Best, Jerry