I turned 66 years old at the end of June 2017. (I was born in 1951) I was married for just short of 34 years. I have not remarried. My X has not remarried. My X just turned 62 ( she was born in 1955) also at the end of June 2017. We have been divorced for 6 years. I have not yet filed for any Social Security benefits. I do not know if my X has; we do not communicate. We were married from 1976 to 2011. I was the primary wage earner; my X worked for the first 10 years of our marriage. She left the work force to be a full time mom. She returned to the work force after our divorce (around 2015) and is still working now. We had two children now ages 30 and 27 and both healthy.
After reading your book, "Get What's Yours", I think I know the strategy to maximize my social security benefits, but value your opinion.
I think I should file a restricted application for full spousal benefit and wait until I turn 70 to take my own retirement benefit. I just wonder if since she didn't work from about 1986 to 2014 the spousal benefit amounts to anything.
Can you confirm ? Jim

Hi Jim,

Yes, given the information in your question it sounds like your best option would likely be to file a restricted application for divorced spousal benefits only effective with July 2017 (i.e. the first full month that your ex-wife is age 62), and then switch to your own record at age 70. However, you may want to strongly consider using the maximization software available on this website in order to explore all of your options to make sure that you choose the best strategy for your circumstances.

Best, Jerry