Yes, it is confusing, and I always recommend discussing these things with the Social Security Administration before making final decisions. But, based on my understanding, yes…the wife could begin drawing her spousal benefit (1/2 of her husband’s benefit) and continue to draw it until age 70 and then start drawing on her own benefit, which, as you point out, would be much larger at that time. In fact, I think that is a great plan.

Note that the wife would need to be full retirement age herself before she would get the full 50% of her husband’s benefit. However, even if she is only 62, it would still be a good idea to start drawing a “reduced” spousal benefit because she is going to switch to her own benefit at age 70 anyway. In my mind, it is almost free money for those years until age 70.

If you learn anything different after checking with SSA, let me know.

I have a question…

Can the higher earning husband get full retirement age benefits and the lower earning wife wait to apply for or apply and suspend her own full retirement age benefits up to age 70 with the following results?

The husband will get his full retirement age benefit amount.
The wife will get 50% of her husband’s full retirement age benefit amount but none of her own.
At age 70, the wife will stop getting half of her husband’s benefit amount and get her own higher benefit amount, which is, at age 70, more than half of full retirement age amount

So confusing to me…Thanks for any help!