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COLA Watch: Another Forecast of Substantial Increase
As inflation continue to rip through the U.S. economy, it’s becoming more commonplace to see estimates of the 2023 Social Security cost-of-living adjustment well north of the 5.9% bump seen in January of 2022. For example, a post by The Motley Fool’s Jeremy Bowman on their website (access it here) suggests the likelihood of an increase in the neighborhood of 9%, potentially making it the largest adjustment in four decades. But his post also sets forth a cautionary note, since inflation is expected to outstrip the COLA amount, causing seniors to lose more ground in the fight to keep their earning power close to the actual cost of living. As Bowman’s post points out, “(f)ood prices have risen 10.9%, gas has jumped a whopping 44%, and utility prices are up 19%,” all of which shaves some of the euphoria off of the expected COLA. We’ll see what happens in about a month, when the actual adjustment for January 2023 benefit checks is announced.