2019 COLA increase (55, pension, supplement, social security)

[txwolfman]

I retired from the USPS under the FERS system with a early retirement offer at age 52 with 14.4 yrs, plus bought my 6 yrs military time. The early offer was eligible for starting with minimum age 50/w 20 yrs.

My MRA(minimum retirement age) was 56.
With FERS, at the USPS, you get a USPS pension and what they called a 'S.S. supplement' added, only if you retire at your MRA. So, I had to wait four years to get that supplement. Then, they only give you that Supplement until age 62. So, when that ended, I applied for my early SSR(social security retirement).

Here are the new COLA increases for 2019

[Bureaucratic]

You can log into your account at opm.gov and see your updated amount for January 2019. Also ssa.gov has been updated for January 2019.

[NYgal1542]

My rent goes up every year. My medical insurance goes up every year. Groceries go up every year.

What would I do without that 2.8% increase in SS.

[mathjak107]

just think about when most of us were working . our medical went up sometimes huge amounts a year along with everything else and no raise .

now we are protected from medicare going up more then our raise . certainly nothing like prior when the sky was the limit .

talk about living on a fixed income , ss is anything but fixed . it is those working as employees that are the true crowd living on a fixed income as many do not even see cola raises .

[mschrief]

Pretty bummed that FERS will get a 2% increase while CSRS receives a 2.8% increase.

[ABQ2015]

Originally Posted by mschrief

Pretty bummed that FERS will get a 2% increase while CSRS receives a 2.8% increase.

I complained about that in a previous forum or thread. It is disheartening to see your pension start to depreciate the very first year of retirement. A 401k and delaying Social Security will help offset inflation.

[marino760]

How often does one get a SS increase? Is every year normal or is it less often than that? I'm sure it probably depends on inflation so maybe this is the first increase in a few years?

[NewbieHere]

I’m thankful my husband even get a small pension. This year health premium goes down, pension goes up, even 2%, he is going to be positive for $100. Yippy!

[NewbieHere]

Originally Posted by marino760

How often does one get a SS increase? Is every year normal or is it less often than that? I'm sure it probably depends on inflation so maybe this is the first increase in a few years?

We got zero increase for 3 years recently, 2009, 2010, and 2015.
https://www.ssa.gov/oact/cola/colaseries.html

[marino760]

Originally Posted by NewbieHere

We got zeroincrease for 3 years recently, 2009, 2015.
https://www.ssa.gov/oact/cola/colaseries.html

Thank you.