My wife and I are both retired, no longer with earned income. I turn 63 in June and she is 18 months older than me. She is a retired Texas teacher subject to WEP and GPO therefore as we understand it will receive little, if any, of my SS benefit. When I retire I locked in her beneficiary benefit upon my death at 75% of my monthly benefit. Also I do not have anything withheld from my retirement. Should I start drawing early and put the benefit in IRA's for each of us to start building an additional benefit for her in the event of my premature death?

Hi. Normally, filing for Social Security benefits early and using the money to invest in an IRA isn't a good plan. A person's Social Security retirement benefit rate increases by an average of roughly 7% to 8% per year between ages 62 & 70 as long as they don't start drawing, and that rate of return would be hard to match in an IRA.

It does sound like your wife's potential Social Security widow's rate would be offset by 2/3rds of the amount of her teacher's pension due to the Government Pension Offset (GPO) provision, though, so I suppose if that would reduce her widow's rate to zero and if you're anticipating a shorter than average life span then maybe you could make a case for following your plan. Before deciding, you should strongly consider using our software (https://maximizemysocialsecurity.com/purchase) to fully analyze your Social Security options so that you can make an informed decision.

Best, Jerry