I was born in 1952, and am considering applying for my social security benefits in January 2020. I will continue working full time. My husband was born in 1956 and also works full time. I am trying to figure out how to maximize our benefits -- that is, get the most money per month if one of us filed in January 2020 for benefits. A few questions:

--If I claim my benefits in January 2020, can my husband get spousal benefits? If so, what percentage of my benefits would that be? I have been told that he can't, given that the law changed re spousal benefits.
--If he were to claim his benefits in January 2020, could I get spousal benefits? I have been told that I could, given that despite the change in the law, I have been grandfathered in because of my birthdate.
--I know that the longer you wait, the more you get per month. I am 67, my husband is 63. I want to know in which scenario above we would get the most per month considering both individual benefit and spousal benefit.

I live in Boston and work at Boston University and would love to set up an appointment for a consultation with you. Please let me know the best way to do that.

Thank you!
Thea

Hi Thea,

I will pass along your contact information to Larry. Just to let you know, though, since your husband was born after January 1 1954 he could never file for spousal benefits without also being required to file for his own Social Security retirement benefits at the same time. Therefore, he couldn't qualify for spousal benefits unless your primary insurance amount (PIA) is more than twice as much as his PIA. A person's PIA is equal to the amount of their Social Security retirement benefit if they start drawing at full retirement age (FRA).

On the other hand, you could potentially file just for spousal benefits while allowing your own Social Security retirement benefit to grow until age 70, but you could only qualify for spousal benefits if your husband is drawing his Social Security retirement or disability benefits. If your husband files for his benefits prior to FRA and he continues working, then both his benefits and your spousal benefits could be subject to full or partial withholding if he earns too much (https://www.ssa.gov/OACT/COLA/rtea.html).

Your best strategy for maximizing your benefits depends on your and your husband's comparative benefit rates and the amount the amount that your husband will be earning annually in the years prior to his FRA. You and your husband may want to consider using our software (https://maximizemysocialsecurity.com/purchase) to explore and compare your options so that you can choose the filing strategy that you feel would work out best for the two of you.

Best, Jerry