If my wife reach the age for retirement on SS, The option for my wife at that juncture to collect max ss and for me to postpone my ss until age 70and 1/2. What determines my wife's SS at that point? What happens to our SS when I retire at 701/2? What exactly must I do at the retirement age to take advantage of this option? I don't expect to need the money until 701/2.

Hi,

First of all, your benefit rate won't be any higher at age 70 & 6 months than it would be at age 70, so there's probably no reason for you to wait past age 70 to claim your Social Security retirement benefits.

If your wife starts drawing her retirement benefits and you are at least full retirement age and were born prior to January 2 1954, you could claim spousal benefits only while allowing your own benefit rate to grow until age 70. You could then switch to your own retirement benefits at age 70 if your retirement benefit rate is higher than your spousal rate. If you are able to claim spousal benefits only at full retirement age (FRA) or later while letting your own benefit rate grow, you would receive 50% of your wife's full retirement age rate, or primary insurance amount (PIA).

Your retirement benefit rate is based on an average of your highest 35 years of wage-indexed earnings that were subject to Social Security taxes, and your wife's retirement benefit rate would be based on her highest 35 years of wage-indexed earnings (https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10070.pdf). If you file for retirement benefits at FRA, you would receive 100% of your PIA. If you wait past FRA to claim your retirement benefits you can accrue delayed retirement credits (DRC) that would raise your rate by 8% per year up until age 70. So, if your FRA is age 66 and you wait until age 70 to start drawing your retirement benefits, you'll benefit rate will be equal to 132% of your PIA.

It sounds like you and your wife have a number of different filing options available to you, so you may want to strongly consider using our software to explore and compare all of your options so that you can choose the best possible strategy for claiming your benefits.

Best, Jerry