64-Year-Old's Social Security Dilemma: Spousal vs. Own Benefits

The question landed with a familiar frustration: “I'm leaving money on the table,” says the 64-year-old reader, who has “paid a significant amount into Social Security.” She and her 70-year-old husband are weighing whether she should claim spousal benefits now or delay until her own benefit maxes out. Her instinct to worry is correct, because Social Security’s spousal rule caps a spousal benefit at 50% of the worker’s primary insurance amount (PIA), and if her own PIA is higher than that half, she gets her own benefit, not a penny of the spousal top-up. The real question is timing: claim early and take a reduced benefit, or wait and let her own record grow by 8% per year past full retirement age (FRA), up to age 70. Her husband is already 70, so he is likely collecting his maximum benefit, which creates a window for strategic claiming that most couples miss.