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I don't watch it for the COA.
I own stocks in my retirement account and manage them myself.
I am watching all economic data released every day, every week.
You are a most remarkable individual, then. In a current thread which you started in the Personal Finance sub-forum of the Business Forum here on City-Data entitled "If you need all the money...." in post #3 you stated: "I live check to check, so there are no reserves."
My mental picture of someone managing his own stocks with very close daily attention does not go with my mental picture of someone who lives check to check with no reserves. Of course there is no reason, per se, why you should conform to majority practice, but I do find your two posts contradictory.
It would be interesting if the average 3rd quarter CPI-W drops, since it appears that it has only happened one other time in history. But, hey, we learned from that one year that anything is possible.
I'm just guessing, but I don't expect an increase in the coming year. The inflation that the government takes into consideration hasn't been much. They don't consider things that we actually use like food, gasoline, etc.
What DO they consider? I've always wondered exactly what it's based on, as prices go up, up, up every month for everything I buy.
I agree, Ann. Just this year, my internet has increased 6%, my health ins premiums went up 12%, gas is way up to $4.00/gallon, my rent just went up 4% on my new lease, my electric rates are up 4%, my car insurance is up 10% over 12 months with no change in driving record, etc. Food is consistently higher on many products I purchase. The increasing cost of gasoline affects everything we buy. How the government comes up with these paltry percentage increases for SS each year is baffling. They do not reflect reality. Health care costs are really out of control, and these are a big percentage of monthly costs. I didn't even see health care premiums in the calculation of the "basket of goods and services" used to determine the SS increase. I have no idea how things will go for 2013 or 2014, but most likely, any increase will not reflect reality.
"The Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) is used to adjust Social Security benefits. It represents the spending habits of the working population, or about 32 percent of the total population."
This is an excerpt from the link in the above post. It is totally ludicrous to determine SS benefit increases based on the working population, which is 32% of the total population. The majority of SS beneficiaries don't work.
"The Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) is used to adjust Social Security benefits. It represents the spending habits of the working population, or about 32 percent of the total population."
This is an excerpt from the link in the above post. It is totally ludicrous to determine SS benefit increases based on the working population, which is 32% of the total population. The majority of SS beneficiaries don't work.
Well, a pretty good chunk of the population has to be children and younger teenagers, who also do not work. And then there are still stay-at-home mothers who do not work, although this is not the normal pattern for women like it was 50 years ago.
While it's quite true that the majority of Social Security beneficiaries don't work, we still spend money on the same things we did when we were working. We still need housing, clothes, transportation, food, appliances, and so forth. We may not purchase these in exactly the same proportions as before, but in my individual case it's pretty close. Therefore, I don't see why it's "totally ludicrous" to base Social Security COLA's on the working population. Is there an existing index which measures the (adult) non-working popultation?
Well, a pretty good chunk of the population has to be children and younger teenagers, who also do not work. And then there are still stay-at-home mothers who do not work, although this is not the normal pattern for women like it was 50 years ago.
While it's quite true that the majority of Social Security beneficiaries don't work, we still spend money on the same things we did when we were working. We still need housing, clothes, transportation, food, appliances, and so forth. We may not purchase these in exactly the same proportions as before, but in my individual case it's pretty close. Therefore, I don't see why it's "totally ludicrous" to base Social Security COLA's on the working population. Is there an existing index which measures the (adult) non-working popultation?
There is one called CPI-U which seems to cover 87% of population, including, among others, the unemployed and poor. But even it leaves out rural, military, and some other groups.
"The Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) is used to adjust Social Security benefits. It represents the spending habits of the working population, or about 32 percent of the total population."
This is an excerpt from the link in the above post. It is totally ludicrous to determine SS benefit increases based on the working population, which is 32% of the total population. The majority of SS beneficiaries don't work.
Thanks for posting the link, Reed.
The law isn't trying to base SS benefits ;only what COLA should be applied. They don't even figure it as yearly but upon a increase that is as stated above on increase above last COLA granted. Its not a rise in point of fact and not meant to be that. I suspect that if they used retirees they would find that their income rermains quite steady and their spending even more steady regardless. They more often shift where they spend their money as to what.I suspect that COLA then would be less and less frequent actually. Retrieees o fixed income are not a very good measure of average cost of living .
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Good article on CPI-W and more
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