The Social Security Administration recently banned one strategy for increasing retirement benefits. However, some others remain viable.
What’s out: Interest-free loans. If you have little or no earned income, you can start Social Security benefits as early as age 62. Such benefits will be reduced from your "normal" benefit.
Until this year, you eventually could repay all the money you had received and start over, receiving a much higher monthly benefit. It was like receiving an interest-free loan. Now, that tactic has been sharply limited.
What still works. Delaying benefits. As long as you don’t need the money, waiting pays. Up to age 70, waiting increases your monthly check by about 8% a year.
Another approach may appeal to married couples with different earnings histories. The higher-earning spouse may file for benefits and then suspend them, in order to get a higher benefit for waiting. At the same time, the lower-earning spouse can claim benefits when the higher-earner files, if that increases payouts to the lower-earning spouse.
