I'm a 63 year old male in good health and still working my wife is 67 years old and receiving SS ($ 1250 / month). My FRA is 66. I know I can either 1: Apply for SS and keep on working 2: My wife apply for 50% of mine ( while I stay working) while still receiving her full retirement 3:
apply and suspend till 70 and receive complete benefit. My question is are there other options ? Thanks.

Hi,

Options 1 & 3 in your list are possibilities when you reach full retirement age (FRA), but your wife couldn't receive 50% of your benefit rate plus her own benefits. First of all, you would have to be drawing your benefits in order for your wife to possibly qualify for spousal benefits, and even then she'd only be eligible for additional benefits from your record if 50% of your full retirement age rate (PIA) is higher than her own PIA.

There's probably no reason for you to file for and suspend your benefits at FRA because you could accrue delayed retirement credits (DRC) until age 70 simply by not filing until then. Filing for and suspending your benefits is not required in order to earn DRCs. Furthermore, your wife couldn't be paid spousal benefits (if she's eligible) while your benefits are suspended (https://www.ssa.gov/planners/retire/suspendfaq.html).

Assuming that you were born after January 1 1954 your options basically come down to when you want to start drawing benefits, and your best option in that regard depends on your and wife's relative benefit rates and your personal preferences. You should strongly consider using our maximization software in order to compare all of your options and determine which filing strategy would likely be best in your case.

Best, Jerry