Yet Another View of the 2022 Social Security COLA - Fox BUsiness News; The Motley Fool
As we mentioned in yesterday’s headline post, and as was highlighted in a headline post last week, the 5.9% cost-of-living-adjustment scheduled to take effect in January will be a welcomed infusion of cash for beneficiaries, but it needs to be remembered amid the excitement that there is a downside to the calculation. In reality, the adjustment simply offers a way for Seniors to recover some of the ground lost over the past year as a consequence of the country’s raging inflation problem. Going forward, the COLA only serves to keep the financial hole caused by continued prices increases from getting a bit deeper…it certainly doesn’t mitigate it.
So let’s take a look at what are the likely culprits that will dilute the impact of the 2022 benefit increase, the largest in four decades. The Motley Fool’s Christy Bieber, in a post appearing on foxbusiness.com and several other news channels, highlights five key, fundamental spending categories where continued price escalation is anticipated in the year(s) ahead, causing the 2022 COLA to quickly dissipate. They include the usual suspects, like prescription drug costs and home heating costs, with a few others thrown into the mix. Oddly, the rise in gasoline prices is not in the top five, perhaps because it has less of an impact on Seniors than the other categories, but the fact remains that this cost category indirectly contributes to increased costs in many other areas of the economy.
In any event, you can read Ms. Bieber’s analysis of the cost pressures facing Social Security beneficiaries in the wake of the 2022 COLA by clicking here…
Notice: The final link provided above connects readers to the full content of the posted article. The URL (internet address) for this link is valid on the posted date; socialsecurityreport.org cannot guarantee the duration of the link’s validity. Also, the opinions expressed in these postings are the viewpoints of the original source and are not explicitly endorsed by AMAC, Inc.; the AMAC Foundation, Inc.; or socialsecurityreport.org.