Make the Most of Your Social Security Benefits (2024)

3. Not coordinating with your spouse

Being married makes claiming Social Security more complicated. Although in a single-income family, it’s very likely more profitable for the earner to delay claiming benefits, when there are two earners it might be better for one (typically the higher earner) to delay while the lower earner claims early. That way you are bringing in some Social Security income if you need it, while the higher-earning spouse waits until age 70 to get the biggest possible benefit. And if the gap between your lifetime income and your spouse’s is significant, you might be eligible for a spousal benefit that’s higher than your retirement benefit would be. Figuring out the precise claiming strategy for couples is complicated. A financial adviser might have software to pinpoint the best date for you — or you can pay to run a calculator like the one Kotlikoff developed at maximizemysocialsecurity.com. It’s $39.

4. Trusting (without verifying)

If you haven’t gone to SocialSecurity.gov and created aMy Social Security account, it’s time. That’s where you’ll be able to see your earnings record and get an estimate of your benefits. Give that earnings statement a good look once a year, experts say. If it doesn’t match what you believe you’ve earned, fill outthis form to request a correction. Finally, once your benefits start rolling in, make sure that they, too, pass the sanity test. Currently, the Social Security Administration is in the process of trying to “claw back” $8.6 billion in benefits it paid but thinks it didn’t really owe — sometimes to individuals who had pensions that disqualified them from benefits, or to those who didn’t pass the earnings test. (More on that below.) Having to repay money already spent is worse than not getting it in the first place.

5. Being unaware of valuable benefits

First, if you are divorced, but were married for 10 years or more, you’re eligible to claim spousal benefits on your ex’s record. That can be a boon, particularly for stay-at-home spouses. You can’t be remarried, but it doesn’t matter if your ex is — both a current and a former spouse can draw on the same person’s record. Next, if you’re a widow/widower or a divorced widow/widower who remarries after 60, you can collect a survivor benefit. You can start these benefits as early as age 60 (or 50, if you’re disabled). As a widow(er), you can receive either your own retirement benefit or up to 100 percent of your deceased spouse’s benefit amount — whichever is larger. Young or disabled children can also collect survivor benefits. So can financially dependent parents. But the total benefits payable on a single deceased person’s record are subject to a family benefit maximum. Family benefit maximums also apply to living workers with respect to spousal, young and disabled child benefits. One good thing, though: What a current spouse receives doesn’t depend on what an ex-spouse receives and vice versa.