Those who qualify for Social Security benefits may want to consider delaying the start date at which they begin collecting. Some little known strategies help married couples maximizing their benefits.

One strategy is to a spousal split whereby a lower-earning spouse (call her Judy) retires at 62 and starts taking benefits. The higher earning spouse (call him Greg) keeps working and defers his benefits as long as possible. If Greg dies, Judy can stop collecting her benefits and start collecting his full benefit.

In another situation Greg defers his own benefit but files for a spousal benefit for his wife's lower benefit as soon as he turns 66. If Judy's benefit is $800 he'll get a check for $400 every month. Meanwhile, his own benefit will continue to rise by 8 percent a year until he's 70. At that point he can file for his own benefit and give up the spousal benefits. Judy can give up her benefit and apply for a spousal benefit based on Greg's history now.

Another strategy is referred to as "file and suspend". In this case, Greg files for his own benefits at age 66 but immediately suspends them allowing Judy (assuming she's also 66) to take spousal benefits from his account, but leaving his own benefits to grow that 8 percent a year until he's 70. This works well when one spouse has significantly higher earnings during the working years than the other spouse.

Another strategy is to buy back some benefits. Perhaps Greg started taking benefits at age 62, but regrets that decision because he received a great job offer. Greg can pay the Social Security Administration back all of the benefits he received, withdraw his early retirement application, and then reapply for full benefits at age 66 or later. This would of course require that Greg have the financial resources to repay those benefits, but also means that he will have borrowed that money interest-free from the Social Security Administration for all of those years.

Depending on how long one lives, all of these strategies could result in either higher or lower lifetime payouts. Waiting to sign up for Social Security can help ensure against out-living one's savings, but delaying is never a good idea if a person is in poor health or otherwise does not anticipate living a long life.