Hi, I turn 67 in early July, 2016. My full retirement age was 66. My wife is six (6) years younger than me. Since she has been 100% disabled for about the last 13 years, she has been collecting SSDI. Prior to becoming disabled, she worked on and off, mostly in secretarial-related positions (i.e., not as a high wage earner), while raising three children. We estimate that during her working career, she had about 10 years of full time employment (with some sporadic part-time employment). Her SS Statement advised that as of the year she went on SSDI (which was 2004), she has earned enough credits to qualify for benefits of $507 per month. I have worked, full time for over 35 years, the last 25 of which have been as an attorney earning reasonably good compensation. I am now retired, but not collecting social security benefits. I have been operating under the belief that we could maximize our SS benefits if I filed for benefits at age 70, and my wife waited until she reached age 66 (I would be 72) to file for her spousal benefits. While this may assure us the highest SS benefit payout over the long term (assuming we both survive - and assuming there is no better strategy), it will make the next 4 to 6 years rather tight. Are we proceeding using the best possible filing strategy, or should we be doing something else? We are grateful for your assistance and response. Thanks, Steve

Steve, it's not possible to answer unequivocally without more information. Now that you're past your full retirement age (FRA), you can file for just your spousal benefit while delaying filing for your retirement benefit until it's maxed out at 70. You can do this because you were born before January 2 1954. Our software can determine your maximized strategy and also let you enter any number of what-if strategies to see how they compare to the maximized strategy, which is the one that yields the highest lifetime household benefits. Thanks, John