I was born 9 march 1951 and my wife was born 16 December 1958. we have been married 30 years. I want to start taking my benefits at 69. My wife will only be 61 years old. Can I take my benefit and then she takes her spouse benefit on 16 December 2020 when she turns 62? Also, do I file on 1 March 2020 or 1 April 2020?

Hi,

Yes, if you're drawing your Social Security retirement benefits then your wife could apply for spousal benefits as early as effective with the first month that she is age 62 for the entire month, which in her case would be January 2021. However, her spousal rate will be reduced for age by roughly 33% if she does so. And, she'll be deemed to also be filing for her own Social Security retirement benefits (if any), so she'll only qualify for spousal benefits if 50% of your full retirement age rate is higher than her own full retirement age rate.

If you want to start your benefits effective with age 69, you should file effective with March 2020. However, if you do so you won't get your full 24% delayed retirement credit (DRC) increase until your benefit payment effective for January 2021. When a person files for benefits between full retirement age (FRA) and age 70, Social Security initially only credits DRCs for the months from their FRA through December of the year prior to their month of entitlement to benefits. So, if you file effective with March 2020 you will initially only receive credit for the DRCs you earn through December 2019. The additional 2 months of DRCs for January & February 2020 would be added effective with your benefit payment for the month of January 2021, but Social Security only does those types of recalculations every other year, so it may be long after January 2021 before you actually see the increase.

Before deciding when to start drawing, you and your wife should strongly consider using our software in order to compare your options and determine your optimal strategy for claiming your Social Security benefits.

Best, Jerry