Ask Larry

Should My Wife File At Age 62 Or Wait Until FRA?

When my wife reached 62, I will already be 70 (the age at which I started taking my SS Benefit). My benefit will be about $ 3050.00/Month. My wife's SS at 62 will be only about $ 225.00/Month. Should she take her SS at 62 along with Spousal Benifit or wait until her FRA of 66 yrs 8 mo?

Hi,

When to start taking Social Security benefits is a personal decision. Based on your description, it sounds like your wife's combined spousal and retirement benefit rate would likely be roughly 28% to 29% lower if she files at age 62 instead of her full retirement age (FRA). The counter argument is that she would obviously start drawing sooner if she files at age 62. No one can say for sure that one way is better than the other, since no one knows what the future holds.

Your wife may want to strongly consider using the maximization software available on this website to explore and compare all of her options so that she can make an educated decision as to when to start drawing benefits.

Best, Jerry

Posted: 
Sep 16 2017 - 7:32am
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