I Wish I Were Older Just This Once

Optimizing Social Security benefits for a married couple can be a complex analysis. Factors to be considered are the couple's ages, historical earnings, future earnings (if applicable), and life expectancies. A bit of research and number-crunching revealed that our own best strategy would be to file-and-suspend. The Chronicle explains [bold added]:

It lets a spouse, say a husband, who reaches full retirement age (around 66) file for his own retirement benefit and immediately suspend it so that it can continue to grow [blogger's note: about 8% per year] until he reaches age 70. His filing lets his wife immediately begin collecting a spousal benefit, as long as she is at least 62. Then, at age 70, he begins collecting his own, higher benefit.

The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 eliminated this strategy for everyone who is not yet 66 years or older as of May 1, 2016. Neither of us will turn 66 by then.

Comments:

1) File-and-suspend is a strategy generally employed by seniors with above-average incomes.

2) The Republican Congress passed a bill that "hurt" one of their constituencies.

3) The media didn't publicize how the Republicans compromised. Puzzling, isn't it?

4) While some planning is essential, this is an example of why it doesn't pay to invest too much time or money (unless one's net worth or income puts one in the top 1%) into building a complex financial model based on rules that can be changed with a stroke of the pen.

5) I wish I were older just this once.