Recent content by hogwild

Grey cars are very difficult to see in the rain.

Earlier this year I moved all my Vanguard accounts to Fidelity. Ten of my Vanguard funds transferred in kind and I still have them in my Fidelity accounts. I have Vanguard funds in a taxable account, a traditional IRA account and a Roth all on Fidelity.

I recently bought 9.62% I-bonds.

The CPI-W index, for September, was posted this am. It increased 5.9%. (from 254.004 to 269.086). The average for the 3 months, July - September, is 5.92%. This would indicate a 2022 SS COLA of 5.9%.

Yes, that is a good trend, but still above the Fed's target rate and I don't think they will raise rates for several quarters.

That's true. Even if the September CPI-W is 0%, which is extremely unlikely, the COLA would be 3.9%. (6+5.8+0)/3

The CPI-W index, for August, was posted this am. It increased 5.8%. (from 253.597 to 268.387). The September index will be announced announced Oct 13. You may recall the July increase was 6.0%. The SS COLA will be the average of the 6.0%, the 5.8% and whatever the September CPI-W will be.

The CPI-W index, for July, was posted this am. It increased 6%. (from 252.636 to 267.789). The August index will be announced Sep 14 and the Sep index will be announced Oct 13. The average of those three numbers will be the 2022 SS COLA.

I agree if inflation stays at 5% for July, August and September that the SS COLA will be 5%. But it would be because of the inflation in those 3 months and has nothing to do with June.

June has nothing to do with the SS COLA. The SS COLA is calculated on the July, August, and September CPI-W. What happens during the other 9 months of the year does not figure into the calculation. The June CPI certainly could be somewhat of a predictor for the following months, but it is not...

There seems to be some confusion on how the SS COLA is determined. It is quite simple. You take the total of the CPI-W for the months of July, August and September of the current year and divide the total by 3 to get the average for those 3 months. You do the same thing for the same 3 months...

I apologize if this has been previously posted, but I didn't see it. Apparently, you can only apply to pay back your benefits within 12 months now. Social Security Press Office: Social Security Publishes New Rule Revising Withdrawal Policy

I have invested in a non-traded REIT. It pays a 6% dividend and, obviously, doesn't trade on the stock market. You can buy them from most financial planners.

My wife and I bought Metlife LTC policies in 2004. I was 55 and she was 53. Premiums were not increased until this year. We have the inflation option on both policies. They gave us the option of keeping the premiums at existing levels if we reset the daily benefit back to 2005 levels. We...

I bought LTC policies for my wife and I 6 years ago. I got quotes from 3 or 4 companies, but State Farm has a quote calculator on their site: www.statefarm.com. I didn't buy there policy, but I did use the calculator to run the various options for comparison. Just an FYI for anyone interested.