Ask Larry

Should I Wait Until Age 70 To File?

I will be 66 in March of 2018 and my husband will be 66 in August of 2018. My husband's SS will be around 2100. and mine would be about 1200. per our soc sec. statements at age 66. ( mine at 70 would be around 1600. his would be about 2800.) My husband is in the Government Offset Program and had his pension reduced in 2014. He worked for over 30 years and SS was taken out of his checks. My husband plans at claiming his, on his 66th birthday. He retired in 2013 and I stopped working in 2006. Should I wait until I'm 70 to claim SS , or will I never make up the difference? We're reading your book, but got a little confused regarding the GOP section. Can you help us?

Hi,

It sounds like it might be best for both you and your husband to wait until age 70 to start drawing, if possible. Or, one of you could start drawing your own benefits in order to permit the other spouse to file just for spousal benefits only on that record at their full retirement age (FRA). The spouse who draws spousal benefits could then switch to their own record at age 70. Those are only a couple possibilities out of many different strategies available to you, so you should strongly consider using the maximization software available on this website in order to fully explore and compare your options in order to determine what's best for your individual situation.

Your husband's Social Security benefit rate(s) and filing options likely won't be affected by the Government Pension Offset (GPO) provision as long as he paid Social Security taxes for at least the last 5 years that he worked for the government (https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10007.pdf).

Best, Jerry

Posted: 
Nov 30 2017 - 7:00am
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