Talking with my kids yesterday talked about food prices adds WalMart, Publix, Winn Dixie price comparisons apples to apples. Seems we are being taken advantage of here in the bubble from produce to meat products. Suggestion if you don’t like the price move on and wait for a sale don’t impulsive buy! Yes they have seen price increases but not like here.

You know we had riots because some ex convict got killed but when it effects everybody we just sit around & talk about it & it keeps getting worse & worse! All I can say is we’ll just have to suck it up until we’ve had enough. Don’t know what else to tell you.

Traveling a little less. Jet fuel is way up now, so I just travel less.

Good to see that someone else actually gets it, the root cause of the inflation we are experiencing is about 13 years of irresponsible monetary and fiscal policy. Rapid expansion of the money supply (printing $$), artificially low interest rates, and unprecedented rapid growth of unsustainable debt are why we are currently experiencing hyper inflation.

I am sick of hearing the excuse that inflation is because of Covid, supply chain shortages, or the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The biggest misleading statement is that current inflation is transitory, unless transitory means several years? All those excuses were merely triggers that set off the inevitable hyper inflation caused be irresponsibility. Because of this incredible irresponsibility, the Federal Reserve doesn’t have the tools at it’s disposal necessary to combat inflation like it did back in the early 1980’s. Not trying to be an alarmist, just a realist. An economy fueled by cheap money and debt is going to eventually crash and burn. Buckle up for a long and bumpy ride.

IMHO You are smarter than the average bear. This documentary strikes home (pun intended) to me that rising home values are devastating to our economy. It is going to create huge unrest between haves and have nots and that's not good per this documentary. Interesting solutions at the end of the clip.

You nailed it. Unfortunately nobody who can do something about it seems to care about bringing the budget under control.

Cut my dining out and cable. An easy 300 a month. Missing neither. Just added WDW tickets to the cuts. Had enough of their nonsense

What corner is that?

Guess that it's a 'state of mind', as you mentioned. It's how I like to think, but understand how you might think differently.

That's a good point, so planning for that.

No. Your house will increase proportional to all. A minimal impact if any

I guess we are on a semi fixed budget, my wife works still and I collected disability and my pension. I understand fixed income when retired based on the fact that your monthly income drops so much that you have to adjust your lifestyle some.

We have no plans to change this years. Still driving, camping, boating, going on a cruise, going to Aruba (timeshare) and eating. No need for us to adjust. When my wife retires we will most likely sell the northern house for additional funds but at 57 she is not ready to retire.

Off topic but: I bought two major appliances from Appliance Direct. They had a range that was not available from Lowes, or Best Buy and was available only months out from Home Depot. The price was good, with delivery and installation. I recommend them, but others may have different experiences.

When things get really bad, I am prepared to sell my toenail collection.

There are plenty of Villages annuity salesman and reverse mortgage people who will cure your problem. :)

Yeah we got a kick in the teeth for this year's health insurance. Neither of us are old enough for Medicare yet, so we rely on the ACA (colloquially known as Obamacare) for subsidies. In 2020, we paid $13/month for premiums. That was great, because neither of us had Social Security yet, and hubby's pension had -just- kicked in after around 6 months of ONLY unemployment benefits. His company closed the department and put him out of work 2 years before he could get full retirement benefits (which would've included health insurance coverage).

In 2021, our premiums went up to around $80, because we were both working part time, and then his Social Security had just kicked in mid-year. So our premiums were based on only 6 months worth of SS rather than a full year's worth.

This year, our premiums are $386/month, even though I retired fully.

I imagine next year we'll be looking at around $1200/month for the two of us if we stick with the plan we have. We'll probably have to take a plan that's not as good, and not get any subsidies at all, and pay the regular price on the marketplace. It'll be around $480/month. But we can at least keep the doctors we have.

I sold my toenails on e-Bay last month and got $12,000 for them.
I said they were Halle Barry's toenails.

Works for me

Drastically reduced travel.

Need to implement tax strategies to keep your ACA income below the subsidy limits if you are close. I have done it for years

Increases like that would hurt anyone. Our insurance actually went down some because our youngest turned 26 last year and we went to a 2 person policy. My pension covers health insurance luckily. Best of luck.

:pray::bigbow::mademyday:

this is 1 of the best threads i've seen so far. so many different opinions & methods. thank you all for the insight re: investments

Be Nice.

I was on ACA for awhile. Because I was working, I did not qualify for the larger subsidies. I also was not able to get the better plans. I spend 407.00 a month with a 10,000.00 deductible. The ACA agent told me if I stopped working he could improve the plan and the premium part I paid would be much lower.

It was not because you were working. It was because of your income level. One does not have to work to have income. I'm not trying to be funny or sarcastic here. This is a very important subject pre medicare retirees should get educated on. First you need to understand what is income per the ACA requirements for subsidy. You may find that shifting some non intuitive items will be helpful. An example is if you have access to after tax money rather than drawing from pre tax accounts it won't count as income for the upcoming year. Another example if you are working you can weigh the financial benefit of stop working when you hit a certain level. The subsidy may be worth more than the money your leaving on the table plus your on vacation for the remainder of the year. Subsidy assistance starts around Mid to high $50K income for married filing joint. Again it what the ACC defines income as. As you march lower down the income scale the subsidies get very substantial quickly.

2022 Obamacare subsidy calculator | healthinsurance.org

You may have the ability to control the income for the subsidy calculation by shifting income or creating deductions. Take a bit of planning. It’s too late if you wait until filing. Ask your tax advisor . It has a terrible cliff to it

You’re right travel less because sitting around & talking about it won’t fix anything!

I’ve observed upper income friends and acquaintances “hog” their estate (which they earned) and when they passed their kids and grandkids had no idea what to do with the money and ended up squandering most of the estate in a year or two. Seriously consider helping them why your alive and you can help with their education and home purchase, etc. By doing that, you can make a better impact to see that your hard earned money goes for the most good. Just a thought. I’ve seen inflation much worse during my lifetime as it can be cyclical. The Federal Reserve should have responded quicker, however, hindsight is “20-20”. In modern times, we have not had a world wide pandemic either and our government should have responded quicker and better because it was predicated by scientists years ago. Again “20-20”!

You don’t want your heirs driving to your funeral in a new Porsche from inheritance

I am curious as to what you think the government should have done "quicker" "better" ?

Many senior friends of mine are slowing giving their sons/daughters some of their inheritance while their living.

I'm sure there is a certain percentage of financial guidance involved with mom and dad that comes with it.

Too easy to get political and best not go in that direction and not allowed on TOTV.

Good to hear.

Smart choice unless to want to get spanked by the mods.......:shocked:

Inflation is a fact of life with an economic model based on constant growth. It seems to come about every 10 years.

With a world based economy, with 7 billion people, a lot of the economic models so far have been based on constant growth. I believe that will need to change. Ideally, a steady state economy with no money.

But, what do I know - LOL!

Use a trust

The hedge against hyperinflation predicted by many economists is bitcoin. In fact many economists predict bitcoin will become the world's reserve currency. El Salvador last year was the first country to recognize bitcoin as a reserve currency alongside the US dollar last year. Tomorrow starts the 2022 bitcoin conference in Miami. It is rumored possibly up to another dozen countries will make the same announcement at the conference. We are witnessing the demise of a world currency held by one country.

I will answer that one because it is so easy. Even though he said it "in hindsight" I can point to many Facebook posts I made and friends I told a year ago. I lead the Supply Chain at a large corporation (in the S&P500). At the beginning of 2021 I saw inflation, and started to call on The FED to raise rates, and the government to stop ALL subsidies. When the FED said it was transitory, I said it was not, and they should raise rates. When the Federal Government started its war on oil, I said this would end badly. Well the chickens have come home to roost. Inflation is RAMPANT. I spend all my days discussing price increases with suppliers - This week - Nylon, Polypropolene, Corrugate, plastic packaging, and drawer slides and the week is just getting started. Thes price increases are round 4 by my count and will not hit consumers until the second half of this year. Labor and Oil are the cost drivers. All those kids you people raised trying to be their friends don't want to work, and we want to go beg everyone else to produce more oil instead of working with our domestic industry. The solution?

1. Raise the Fed Funds rate by 1/2 percent this month, and by 1/4 every month going forward.
2. Unlimited drilling leases and restart the Keystone XL pipeline.
3. Fast track the 6 other new pipelines for Gas and Oil that regulators are sitting on.
4. Go back to the Clinton era regulations on Welfare and make everyone work.
5. Cut back US government spending by 10% immediately.
6. Open up LEGAL immigration to 5 million legal immigrants from Central and South America a year with a clear path to citizenship - you work for a company in the US with a clean work record for 10 years, pass a US history and English test and we make you a citizen. NO ILLEGALS get citizenship. They have to go back and get in line. We need workers BADLY and this would give them to us.

The solution to this is simple, but the Federal reserve and the President are not willing to do it, so my suggestion is buy real estate, stocks, and commodities. Also wait until 70 to take your Social Security, but that was a no brainer before this. It is the best inflation protection you can buy.

BTW- I tried to stay away as much from Politics as I could here by offering direct solutions. I really don't care what party it is, something needs to be done.

Bitcoins use an enormous amount of energy to mine, resulting is contribution to climate change. Bitcoins use an enormous amount of computers/GPUs to mine, using rare earth minerals.

There are better alternatives.

There are hundreds of coins. Nothing special about Btc other than hyped by media and those who paid little for it. Speculators love action. Just another tulip based on faith. It’s great until it isn’t