My wife is 10 years older than me. She is 64 and I am 54. I will have a much higher benefit than she will say full for me is 3000 and full for her is 2000. What should we do?

Hi,

Your choices sound pretty straightforward, so it really comes down to what you're most comfortable doing. Based on your figures, both you and your wife will only receive benefits based on your own individual earnings histories for as least as long as both of you are living. And, the earlier that each of you starts drawing prior to age 70, the lower your individual monthly rates will be.

The surviving member of a couple usually receives the higher of their two benefit rates, so if you die first your wife would qualify for survivor benefits. If you want to provide her with her highest potential survivor rate you should wait until age 70 to start drawing your benefits. Since your benefit rate is higher than your wife's, though, the only way that you'd qualify for survivor benefits is if your wife dies before you start drawing your benefits, in which case you could potentially start out drawing survivor benefits and then switch to your own higher benefits at age 70.

You and your wife may want to strongly consider using our software (https://maximizemysocialsecurity.com/purchase) to fully explore and compare your various options so that you can determine the filing strategy that's most likely to maximize your benefits.

Best, Jerry