Finally, a little support for Social Security recipients, as there will be a 2.8% cost-of-living increase next year. Roughly 62 million Americans will benefit from this increase, but before we get too excited understand that we are talking about the average recipient receiving an additional $39/month bringing the average monthly payout to $1,461 or $17,532 yearly.

But we have no free lunch here as the taxable earnings threshold subject to the Social Security tax will increase from $128,400 to $132,900 in 2019 (a 3.5% increase). Furthermore, the Social Security Administration continues to base the COLAs on the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, as opposed to the CPI-E, which is a more appropriate measure of inflation for those over 65 years old. This needs to be addressed sooner than later, as many of those approaching retirement have anemic retirement account balances.