[fintstone]

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

Nice to hear you admit there is something you don't know.

For those who want to take the time to "do the math" and don't know how, there is a rather windy guide to how to make the calculations here:

https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/how-to-calculate-cpi

Calculating the increase in dollar amount spent on things you actually buy (as opposed to the government's standard market basket reflected in the CPI) is a good way to understand how inflation and the COLA adjustment actually affects you.
For us, the dollar amount increase in cost of the things we actually buy is less that the dollar amount of the COLA adjustment.

What is it that I don't know? whether you buy any food (at home or away from home), gasoline, natural gas, fuel oil, electricity, airline tickets, or anything on credit? I guess it is possible that you buy none of these, but if not, someone is buying them for you (unless living completely off grid or in a homeless encampment).

Wouldn't it be easier to just look up the table the government prints that shows the percent increase in each thing considered under the CPI number like I did (when I listed the things that you must not purchase if inflation does not affect you)?