Actionable Strategies to Protect Your Income
You cannot control the inflation rate or the official government formula, but you can control how you structure your retirement income. Taking proactive steps today ensures that inflation does not derail your long-term security.
- Optimize Your Claiming Strategy: If you have not yet claimed Social Security, strongly consider delaying your benefits. Every year you wait past your full retirement age until age 70 increases your base benefit by 8 percent. Because the annual COLA is a percentage multiplier, applying that percentage to a larger base benefit yields significantly more total dollars over your lifetime.
- Re-shop Your Medicare Coverage: Medicare Advantage and Part D prescription drug plans change their formularies and pricing every single year. Use the Medicare Open Enrollment period (October 15 through December 7) to compare plans on Medicare.gov. Switching to a plan that covers your specific medications at a lower cost can save you hundreds of dollars, effectively putting the COLA back in your pocket.
- Implement Tax Diversification: Build buckets of money with different tax treatments. Keep funds in taxable brokerage accounts, tax-deferred accounts (Traditional IRAs), and tax-free accounts (Roth IRAs). When inflation spikes and you need extra cash, pulling from a Roth IRA prevents you from increasing your provisional income and triggering the Social Security tax torpedo.
- Audit Your Discretionary Spending: Track your actual expenses over a three-month period. Separate your essential bills (housing, food, healthcare, utilities) from your discretionary spending (travel, dining out, hobbies). When inflation drives up your essential costs, knowing exactly where to temporarily trim discretionary spending provides immediate financial relief.
- Build a Robust Cash Buffer: Maintain one to two years of living expenses in a high-yield savings account or short-term Treasury bills. This cash buffer ensures you do not have to sell stocks at a loss during a market downturn just to keep up with rising daily living costs.
3.8% COLA is a disgrace to those on SSI.
You get a whopping extra $79 and medicare increases its monthly requirement.
After that the $79 is shrunk down to if your lucky $10,.
Quit wasting the money we put in from our salaries. and increase the COLA so we can keep up with inflation and not give it to Illegals…
Depressed and frustrated senior citizen…………..
I’ll get about $154 more
COLA is so broken. The cost of gas has made almost a 20% increase and cost of food has nearly 30% increase on some items. 3% is not even a scratch on the surface. Its hard enough to get SSI but to work your whole life just to struggle because the government can’t do basic math is getting really old. COLA is suppose to reflect the Cost of Living. Ao if cost of living makes a 20% increase that year the SSI and VA Disability benefits should follow suit. Quit punishing the people who the government has lied to the longest.
Yeah, we appreciate everything we get, but this still is not enough for the older people
The only good thing I have to say is I’m more and more grateful for the Blue Cross- Blue Shield insurance that, as a former VA employee, I carried over into retirement. Comparing BCBS with Medicare plan B, the latter is a ripoff.
3.8 per cent of nothing is still nothing
Right on .They don’t get social security and the right wing lies about it to keep us divided by their ignorant base that don’t know any better since they are told to stay stupid and not research or think for themselves
So we get a raise in social security but then Medicare raises its prices so SS is a very little increase. How about we make Congress paypack the monies they STOLE from Social Security and left WORTHLESS IOU’s in its place? Plus interest, it might make Social Security solvent. And then ahow about Congress has to pay into Social Security the way other people HAVE TO. How about any time they make a new rule, they have to follow it also and not be exempt! I’d be for all of that!
So we get a raise but Medicare immediately raises what they pull out. Your ‘raise’ is drastically reduced. How about we do 2 things: Make Congress pay back (with interest) the Worthless IOU’s they left when they Stole funds from Social Security. And make Congress pay into Social Security the way the people who work have to. Just a thought.
You get a bump in social security and Medicare immediately raises you costs so how much do you really realize in the SS gain? If they made Congress pay back all the WORTHLESS IOU’s they left when they stole monies from Social Security, it would put social security on solid financial ground. But they won’t pay it back yet keep raising their (Congress’) salaries ! And how about if Congress had to pay into social security instead of exempting themselves from it?