Social Security COLA 2.8%

[Lakedog]

I get my first federal pension COLA in 2019 and just realized that it will be 2%. The diet COLA formula for FERS is that if inflation is between 2 and 3%, the COLA is rounded down to 2%. Below 2%, the COLA would be the same as inflation. So pension is already eroding.

Not sure if any of your time was under CSRS (if maybe you switched to FERS voluntarily), but that figures into the COLA based on the % of your pension that resulted from CSRS. I retired under FERS but 75% of my pension was from CSRS time so in my case the upcoming COLA will be around 2.6%.

 

[W2R]

I get my first federal pension COLA in 2019 and just realized that it will be 2%. The diet COLA formula for FERS is that if inflation is between 2 and 3%, the COLA is rounded down to 2%. Below 2%, the COLA would be the same as inflation. So pension is already eroding.

My FERS pension is going up just 2%, like yours (although my SS is going up the full 2.8%).

However, I seem to be spending less than I used to spend, not more. How odd! Maybe that is partly because I own rather than rent, so I don't have to deal with rent increases.

 

[Amethyst]

Not sure how it equates, but I get a CSRS pension because I paid into CSRS. I will never get SS, because I haven't paid into it long enough. I've long suspected that FERS vs. CSRS, for me, would have been a wash, although I would not want to get into a big hooraw about it.

I get my first federal pension COLA in 2019 and just realized that it will be 2%. The diet COLA formula for FERS is that if inflation is between 2 and 3%, the COLA is rounded down to 2%. Below 2%, the COLA would be the same as inflation. So pension is already eroding.

 

[ABQ2015]

I took the diet COLA into account in my FIRECALC calculations (based on recommendations of members in this forum) so am okay. Just did not expect so much inflation so soon in retirement. Missed CSRS by one year. I would have been better off with CSRS than FERS plus SS especially since in the words of imoldernu, I have no appetite for the stock market and did not do well despite throwing lots of money at it. Am tracking spending closely but even with lots of travel this year, I am within budget so all is good.