I am 68, retired, but have delayed taking SS monthly benefits. I am eligible for a maximum benefit, and am planning to delay taking SS till I must at age 70. My wife is 6 years my junior (age 62), currently still working. She too is earning enough to qualify for a max benefit when she reaches her FRA. However, she would like to retire in 2 years time (64), and live off other income to get her to her FRA.
My questions are:
1. I will be 70 when she retires at age 64. Since I will then be collecting SS, I take it she can claim a spousal benefit off my SS at this time? Is this correct? Again. she will be retired at this time, but not collecting SS off her own benefits.
2. If we do #1, can she at age 66 (her own FRA) revoke collecting spousally under my benefit and begin collecting under her own benefit which will be considerable higher? Or would doing #1 prevent her from doing this?
3. Is there another strategy we should be considering to maximize benefits? For example, I can file now for my benefit and can she file for a spousal benefit since she is 62 while still working herself? Would her benefit be reduced based on her salary?

Thanks for any guidance you can provide.

Hi,

Your presumption about your wife being able to draw just spousal benefits while saving her own benefits for later is mistaken. Thanks to the Social Security amendments passed by Congress in 2015 (https://www.ssa.gov/planners/retire/claiming.html?intcmp=AE-RET-PLRT-REL...) your wife will never be able to file for spousal benefits without also filing for her own benefits at the same time. And if her own benefit rate would be higher than her potential spousal rate, she would simply not qualify for spousal benefits.

Since you were born prior to January 2 1954 you would be able to file for just spousal benefits without filing for your own benefits, but your wife would have to be drawing her benefits in order for you to be able to do that. And if she has high earnings, the Social Security earnings test would likely prevent either of you from being able to draw benefits on her record while she's still working (https://www.ssa.gov/planners/retire/whileworking.html).

You and your wife should strongly consider using our maximization software in order to explore and compare all of your various options in order to determine the best filing strategy for both of you.

Best, Jerry