financial adjustments

What Is Social Security Telling Us?
photo shows a fan of $20 bills with a rubberbanded roll of $1 bills on top of it

We’re taking a swig of some big news, fresh from the Social Security Administration.

They’ve announced that the COLA—the Cost-of-Living Adjustment—for 2022 will be 5.9%. Payments for January 2022 will be increased by that amount.

Who doesn’t like getting a raise? But let’s think about how we earned this one.

Our cost of living has been rising. Inflation is running at levels we have not seen in decades. And the laws governing Social Security benefits call for annual adjustments to help offset the rise in the cost of living. In other words, our expenses have been rising for some time, and this “raise” will help us get back some of the purchasing power we have lost.

Inflation has other ramifications, too. Sometimes we assume that financial things with stable values are safe. Savings accounts or certificates of deposit, bonds, and other fixed-income investments generally do offer more stability than long-term equity investments such as common stock.

But perhaps the news from the Social Security Administration is a chance to remember that our cash on-hand pretty much always buys less this year than it did last year—because of the cost of living. If we make 1% interest while prices rise 5%, we are going backward in purchasing power over time.

When there was little inflation, our cash cushions did not cost us a lot. We love the sensation of having the money we need, readily at hand. Funds for emergencies or opportunities are always good to have.

But the purchasing power of excess cash laying around is melting away, day by day. It might pay to consider whether more should be committed to long-term investments.

Clients, if you would like to talk about your cash cushion or anything else, please email us or call.

Investing includes risks, including fluctuating prices and loss of principal.

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Play the audio version of this post below:

What Is Social Security Telling Us? – 228Main.com Presents: The Best of Leibman Financial Services

This text is available at https://www.228Main.com/.

Little Is Big

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We were working recently with a client whose spouse passed away last year. Major life changes usually require a series of conversations to get everything settled and all the adjustments made.

This conversation showed us that “little is big.” The household cash flow was just a bit shy of covering the bills. Savings on hand were slowly being eaten up, month by month. If you have been in this position, you know it feels bad. It affects your attitude in a negative way.

A simple adjustment, slightly increasing the monthly withdrawal from invested balances, fixes it so there will be a little money left over every month instead of a constant shortage. The amount isn’t material to the sustainability of her finances. It was little, but changed everything. Little is big.

The same notion applies to other things in other ways, including investment analysis. Imagine the dynamics of an industry whose business is steadily shrinking by 1% per year, compared to one that is growing by that much. The shrinking industry would tend to have too much supply, poor margins, and dispirited employees. A slight difference—a little growth instead of a little shrinkage, would change everything. Little is big.

It matters in retirement planning, too. We did some arithmetic for a client age 40 with a $180,000 retirement account balance and $9,000 per year in deposits. A 1% difference in annual returns, the difference between 7% and 8%, makes a $400,000 difference in the amount accumulated at age 65. Little is big. (This is arithmetic, not a projection nor a prediction. No guarantees.)

This raises a question: if every little thing is potentially big, how do you keep track of it all?

For us, the answer is to keep the big idea in mind, and try to make sure everything we do advances the big idea. Our big idea is to grow your bucket, and strive to make it serve you as you need. Paying attention to the little things working to advance the big idea, that we can do.

Clients, if you would like to talk about this or anything else, please email us or call.

The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual.

This is a hypothetical example and is not representative of any specific situation. Your results will vary. The hypothetical rates of return used do not reflect the deduction of fees and charges inherent to investing.