I bought your book and I'm about a third of the way through it. With the most recent change SS made I'm trying to access if one of us can suspend and the other file on their spouse. My wife will be 66 in 2 years. I will be 66 in 2 months. We both work. I own a start up business earning about 1500 a month. She is a teacher at $80,000 per. She will have a nice pension about $30k per and she wants to retire in 2yrs. I have no pension. My SS estimate is $2100 per month at 66. My wife is at $1600 at 66. She is in good health, I have Afib and survived esophageal cancer. Wait? until 70? Or is there a strategy to collect some now and leave my wife with a higher SS if I pre decease her? Thanks.

Hi,

Both you and your wife were grandfathered with regard to the new deeming provisions in the 2015 Social Security amendments (https://www.ssa.gov/planners/retire/deemedfaq.html), so one of you could file for spousal benefits only at age 66 and let your own benefit rate grow until age 70. The catch is that you can only get spousal benefits if your spouse is drawing their own Social Security benefits, and you can no longer receive spousal benefits if your spouse has suspended their benefits (https://www.ssa.gov/planners/retire/suspendfaq.html).

You and your wife have a lot of possible filing options available to you, and the best strategy depends on a number of variables as well as your personal preferences. You should strongly consider running the maximization software available on this website in order to determine the best strategy for both of you.

Best, Jerry