At 67 With a $140K Pension, Should You Delay Social Security to 70?
A retiree weighs delaying Social Security to boost spousal survivor benefits. Here's the tradeable calculus.
If you're 67, pulling a $140,000 pension, and wondering whether to wait until 70 to claim Social Security, you're asking exactly the right question — just make sure you're asking it for the right reason. The real issue here isn't your monthly check. It's what happens to your wife the day you die.
Here's the brutal math the source lays out: when this retiree passes, household retirement income collapses to just $30,000 a year. That's a cliff, not a step down. If your pension doesn't carry survivor benefits — or carries reduced ones — your spouse could be left in a genuinely precarious financial position, regardless of how comfortable things look right now.
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Delaying Social Security from 67 to 70 earns you roughly 6-8% more in guaranteed, inflation-adjusted income per year you wait. That's not a market bet. That's a government-backed return most assets can't touch. More importantly, your Social Security benefit becomes the survivor benefit your spouse can claim if it's larger than her own. Delay it, and you're buying her a bigger lifeline.
The $140K pension changes the urgency of claiming early but doesn't kill the case for waiting. You don't need Social Security income right now — you're covered. That's actually the perfect setup for letting your benefit compound to its maximum at 70. Think of the three years between now and then as a low-cost insurance premium on your wife's financial future.
Bottom line: if your wife's post-death income nosedives to $30K, delaying to 70 is one of the cheapest, most effective hedges available to you. Run the survivor benefit numbers with a fee-only advisor before you file anything. Continue reading at MarketWatch.com
