I'm not sure how I am going to spent this bonus of income. The nnews is now public so I except all the people I know calling hoping to get a piece. How big a increase will I be getting to offset the rising prices of gas, energy, food, medicines, medical costs, and every freaking thing else that has gone up by 30 or 40% in the last yr? Would you believe I'm going to the get whopping amount of $24.00 ?
The typical retiree will face the challenge of using the extra $24 to cover higher costs for everything from gasoline and food to medical care.
What will that $24.00 pay for ? 1/3 of a tank of gas allowing me to go appox 100 miles. It could be used to pay for a 1/7 of my month prescriptions, or 8lbs of hamburger. It will pay 1/33 of my monthly rent, but only for one month. Such extravagance is unheard of in this day and age of supporting the entire country 0f Iraq. I sure hope they can share it.http://hosted.ap.org/...
Not that this should be taken for a rant or anything. I'm sure Pres. Bush will soon take to the Fox channel to remind how grateful I should be to be getting anything this yr with our troops in harms way. I understand how badly we need to spend the over 775 Million on the embassy that will never open in Baghdad, or the Billion dollars that we have paid to Blackwater to blacken the name of all Americans.
I am truly sympathic when Bush and Cheney need to pay Comcast $1000 for every email they request under the NSLs or other forms of spying they use. That stands true also when Bush needs to give bonuses of up to $150,000 to our service men and women when they threaten to quit the Army and go home or the bonuses they pay to talk the new broke recruits to joinup. It's all money well spent. Better they be able to buy their own body armor then I be able pay my heating bill.
This yr I received $1055 a month, next yrs I will be given a raise to $1079 a month. A enormous amount of 288 dollars a yr more. This appox 5 dollar a week raise is more than I deserve to be sure. Surely we have fence we need to build somewhere that this money could be used to build, or even a bridge to nowhere ? Damn, I wonder if this will put me in a higher tax bracket ? I better call my accountant. Oops, can't do that, I owe him too much money already.
There may still be a good part tot this raise. The Hospice that refused me a bed this past weekend because my SS didn't pay enough may decide this is enough. I better stop writing this and go call before someone beats me to it.
If you are one of us that are going to get this windfall of money next yr, maybe you could share how you will spend this lotto type winnings while I make my call. Here are some numbers so you can add up your windfall too.
"Just under one in three older Americans count on Social Security for nearly all of their income and almost two-thirds of beneficiaries count on Social Security for at least half of their income," he said.
Part of the Social Security increase will be eaten up by a rise in the cost of Medicare, the health care program that covers the elderly and disabled. The government said this month that Medicare premiums will rise 3.1 percent next year, which comes to $2.50 to $96.40 per month. That is the lowest Medicare premium increase in six years.
Next year's cost-of-living increase will go to more than 54 million people. Nearly 50 million receive Social Security benefits; the rest get Supplemental Security Income payments for the poor.
The average retired couple, both receiving Social Security benefits, will see their monthly check go from $1,722 to $1,761, an increase of $39.
The standard SSI payment for an individual will go from $623 per month to $637.
The average monthly check for a disabled worker will go from $981 to $1,004.