Little-Known Hack for Doubling Social Security Benefits

There is a little-known strategy that can effectively double your Social Security benefits if you were born before 1960. This “hack” revolves around the timing of when you start claiming your benefits and how spousal or survivor benefits work.

Here’s how it works: Social Security calculates your benefit based on your earnings history, but there are also provisions for spouses and survivors that can significantly increase the total amount a couple receives. If you delay claiming your own retirement benefit past full retirement age (up to age 70), your monthly payment grows by about 8% per year due to delayed retirement credits. Meanwhile, if you qualify for spousal or survivor benefits, these can be claimed strategically to maximize income.

For example, one spouse might claim only the spousal benefit while allowing their own retirement benefit to grow until age 70. After that point, they switch to their higher personal benefit. Similarly, widows or widowers can claim survivor benefits first and then switch to their own higher earned benefit later on.

This approach requires careful planning around birth years because rules differ slightly depending on whether you were born before or after 1960. Those born before 1960 have more flexibility with these strategies due to current Social Security regulations.

The key takeaway is that by understanding and using these rules—delaying personal claims while leveraging spousal or survivor options—you could potentially double the amount of monthly income received from Social Security compared to claiming early at full retirement age without coordination.

This method isn’t widely known because it involves navigating complex timing rules rather than simply filing as soon as eligible. But for those who plan carefully and coordinate with their spouse’s benefits timeline, it offers a powerful way to boost lifetime Social Security income well beyond what many expect from standard claiming strategies.