Retirees: Planning a COLA party? Make sure it’s BYOB

[RV_]

Excerpt:

 

"An interesting take on the upcoming annual COLA calculations advises readers that, "if you are planning to invite some retiree friends to your Oct. 18 COLA (cost of living adjustment) party, here's a tip: Make sure your fellow retiree guests know they are to bring their own drinks. And food. And maybe any spare change they have to put in a tip jar for you. Or better yet, if you are seeking a genuine, festive occasion, it might be wise to cancel your COLA party altogether. Don't even bother sending out the invites. Why? Because ...There ain't gonna be much to celebrate. Maybe a few bucks more, per month, in the new year. Maybe a little over $100 for the entire 2017 year. Is that cause for celebration, or a wake?"

The Federal News Radio article goes on to share that, "Oct. 18 is when the Labor Department's data, on which the January COLA will be based, will be announced. It's a complex formula and a complex procedure. The yardstick is the CPI-W (Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers). The idea is to track city-by-city living costs to follow the rise (or fall) of inflation based on a market basket of goods. When living costs for the third quarter (July, August, September) of the current year rise over the CPI level for the previous years' third quarter, people who get civil service retirement benefits, military retired pay or Social Security get a raise. To further confuse you, this year any 2017 increase will be based on the increase of the CPI from July, August, September of this year (2016) over the same figure for 2014 . The reason for using 2014 as the base year is that retirees didn't get a COLA this year, based on 2015 numbers."

 

The original article is here http://federalnewsradio.com/federal-report/2016/10/planning-a-cola-party-make-sure-its-byob/

[Newt]

I've never understand why they use COLA numbers for people who work for retired people.

 

Newt