Inflation is particularly noticeable for people on fixed incomes, like many who receive Social Security. To help offset this, Social Security applies a COLA. For 2025, the COLA will be 2.5%, and while I'm sure retirees appreciate any increase in benefits, many aren't jumping for joy at the amount.

As I’m sure you already heard, all 68 million Social Security beneficiaries’ checks are going up 2.5% in 2025. I always dread mentioning COLAs in this column because every single time I do, I am flooded with emails from readers complaining that the increase is not enough.

In 2025, the COLA will be 2.5%, down from 3.2% in 2024 and 8.7% in 2023 and 5.9% in 2022. However, this string of four COLAs still tied a record.

Technically speaking, a 2.5% Social Security COLA isn't terrible when you consider it's largely in line with the average raise over the past decade. Rather, the issue at hand is that seniors on Social Security typically lose buying power year after year regardless of what their COLAs actually amount to.