It sometimes seems like almost everyone pushing retirement age today thinks he or she wants to employ the "file and suspend" strategy to maximize his or her Social Security benefits. Not a single day goes by when I don't get dozens of emails from readers telling me they plan to employ this strategy to gain the maximum return on their Social Security investment. They often tell me they attended some kind of seminar at which a local financial planner extolled the virtues of "file and suspend."

But the problem is that so many of these folks, including many financial planners, have their facts wrong. They frequently are mixing up the "file and suspend" maximizing strategy with a completely different procedure I'll call "file and restrict." And it's this latter strategy that most folks should be employing if they want to take benefits on a spouse's record at age 66 and later switch to their own benefits at 70. And this isn't simply a matter of semantics. If you walked into a Social Security office and told them you wanted to "file and suspend" rather than restrict your application, you could end up heading down a completely different road (actually a wayward detour) trying to get to your ultimate Social Security goal.

The term "file and suspend" refers to a procedure in which you file for your Social Security benefits and then immediately suspend those benefits. There really are only two times when you would want to "file and suspend." (And by the way, YOU MUST BE 66 OR OLDER to do this.)

One is when you would like to delay taking your own Social Security benefits until age 70 (to reap the 32 percent bonus that comes with delaying benefits until that age), but you have a spouse with little or no Social Security coverage who would benefit by filing on your record. But your spouse can't claim benefits on your record unless you actually file yourself. So that's why you have to file for your own retirement benefits. Once you file, then your better half also can file for spousal benefits. You would then suspend your payments (again, waiting until age 70 to start them up again). But your spouse can be paid benefits even though yours are in suspense.

Here is an example of how this would work. Fred is 66 years old. He has a 62-year-old wife, Wilma, who has not worked enough to qualify for her own benefits. Fred does not want to take his benefits until he is 70. But in order to let Wilma get some Social Security without waiting for four more years, Fred can file for retirement benefits at age 66. Wilma will then file for dependent wife's benefits on Fred's record and start receiving about 35 percent of her husband's age-66 rate. Fred then requests that his retirement benefits be suspended. At age 70, he would then "unsuspend" his benefits and start getting 132 percent of his basic Social Security benefit. Wilma will keep getting 35 percent of Fred's age-66 rate. (When Fred dies, then Wilma's widow's benefit will equal his 132 percent benefit.)

The only other time you would want to "file and suspend" does not involve a spouse. If you want to delay your Social Security retirement benefits until age 70, you should still "file and suspend" at age 66. You would do this to protect your eligibility for back benefits if your circumstances change before you reach age 70. For example, if serious health issues afflict you in your late 60s, you may decide it is no longer worth it to delay your Social Security until age 70. You could then "unsuspend" your benefits and receive back pay benefits to age 66. (Of course, you would no longer be due the delayed retirement bonus.) Had you not filed for your Social Security benefits (and then suspended them) at age 66, you would not have been able to claim the retroactive benefits once you changed your mind. And under this "file and suspend" plan, if you remain healthy or your circumstances don't otherwise change, you simply "unsuspend" your benefits at age 70 at which point you will be credited with the full delayed retirement bonus.

But many people who are approaching their retirement years don't want to employ either of those "file and suspend" strategies. Instead, they want to claim benefits from a spouse at age 66, and then later, at age 70, switch to their own retirement benefits to get the 32 percent bonus. These folks want to employ the "file and restrict" policy. To explain this strategy, I must first give a little background.

The law says that an application for one kind of reduced Social Security benefit is automatically an application for every other Social Security benefit you might be due. That is why you generally can NOT file for reduced spousal benefits (at age 62, for example) and later switch to full benefits on your own record.

But the law also says that once you reach age 66, that "unrestricted application" rule goes out the window. What that means is that at age 66 you can file for Social Security and "restrict" your application to spousal benefits only. Then at 70, you can file for your own retirement benefits and get the 32 percent bonus.

Once again, please understand this is NOT a file and suspend scenario. You are not filing and suspending anything. You are filing for Social Security benefits, and then restricting the scope of that application to spousal benefits only.

One final point. You don't necessarily have to wait until 70 to claim your benefits and get a delayed retirement bonus. That bonus is figured on a monthly basis. It is two-thirds of one percent for each month benefits are delayed beyond age 66. (That comes out to 32 percent at age 70.) So you can claim your own benefits anytime between age 66 and 70 and get whatever delayed retirement bonus you have accumulated up to that time.

If you have a Social Security question, Tom Margenau has the answer. Contact him at [email protected]. To find out more about Tom Margenau and to read past columns and see features from other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.