Hi,

My wife and I are both 66. My PIA is $2,809 at age 66 and $3,732 at age 70. My wife's PIA is $1,108 at age 66 and $1,463 at age 70. I am planning to delay receiving my SS benefit until age 70. We've been told that our best strategy to maximizing our benefits is for my wife to start taking her SS benefit at age 66 and switch to spousal benefits at age 70 when I start taking mine. Do you agree with that strategy?

Thank you,

JR

Hi JR,

That sounds like a good plan to me, but you may want to strongly consider using our maximization software to run your numbers and make sure that you choose the very best possible strategy. By the way, in the scenario you outline your wife wouldn't actually switch to spousal benefits when you file on your record. Instead, she would continue receiving her own benefit plus the difference between her PIA (i.e. full retirement age rate) and 50% of your PIA, bringing her total benefit amount up to 50% of your PIA.

EDITED TO ADD THE FOLLOWING:
Furthermore, if you were born prior to January 2 1954 an important part of your plan should be to file for just spousal benefits only a) when your wife file's for her benefits or b) when you reach your full retirement age of 66, whichever is later. That would allow you to draw up to 4 years of spousal benefits before switching to your own record at age 70. Drawing the spousal benefits under those circumstances would have no adverse affect on your own benefit rate in the future.

Best, Jerry