Many of you may have been trying to catch up on family gatherings and travel this year after those activities were so curtailed during the pandemic. Now rising interest rates for consumer credit cards, on top of higher food and gas prices, may be putting a damper on these summer activities. How long will inflation drag on?
Older consumers have been under pressure from rising prices for more than a year and a half. According to TSCL’s surveys and your email, inflation hasn’t shown much sign of going away soon. In fact, both the Congressional Budget Office and the Social Security Administration estimate that inflation will stick around through 2023.
Food and energy costs are the two most volatile spending categories in the consumer price index. Here’s what government economists forecast, and what things cost as of June 2022 consumer price data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). So far, inflation has been greatly higher than expected.
Sources: U.S. Energy Information Administration, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Labor Statistics.
How has inflation impacted your standard of living in recent years? Please tell us by taking TSCL’s new Retirement Survey.
Sources: The Budget and Economic Outlook: 2022 to 2032, Congressional Budget Office, May 2022. The 2022 Social Security Trustees Annual Report, June 2, 2022.
