Early SS filing by wife has long term penalty ?

[perrytime]

This statement from article linked by Yahoo finance, seems to fly in face of convectional advise. If True, how much less than %50 does she end up with.

“A spouse who claims her own benefit at 62 and later adds on a spousal benefit does not jump up to 50% of the primary worker’s primary insurance amount,” says Floyd. “Rather, she gets a spousal add-on equal to the difference between her primary insurance amount, or PIA, and half of his PIA. This difference is added to her existing reduced benefit to give her a total benefit that is somewhat less than 50% of his PIA.”

 

[travelover]

Her own benefit and 1/2 of her husbands are not additive. She gets the higher of the two at her full retirement age. If she takes a benefit early (like at age 62), then that payment is reduced as shown below.

Example: Husbands full retirement age benefit is $2000 / month. Wife gets $1000/ month at age 66 or $750 a month at age 62



Retirement Planner: Can You Take Your Benefits Before Full Retirement Age?

If you start your benefits early, they will be reduced based on the number of months you receive benefits before you reach your full retirement age. If your:

• full retirement age is 66, the reduction of your benefits at age 62 is 25 percent; at age 63, it is about 20 percent; at age 64, it is about 13.3 percent; and at age 65, it is about 6.7 percent.
• full retirement age is older than 66 (that is, you were born after 1954), you can still start your retirement benefits at 62 but the reduction in your benefit amount will be greater, up to a maximum of 30 percent at age 62 for people born in 1960 and later.

 

[Sunset]

I always thought the conventional wisdom for all these SS variations was to do it at full retirement age, not 62.