maybe im overthinking this but all the news about the social security cola increase has me spiraling about my parents retirement plan. they keep saying the adjustment will cover them and i did some rough math last night that says otherwise... what do you all use to actually model this stuff against real expenses? my napkin math is clearly not cutting it and id rather know now than find out in five years

2 replies

1. There are a few retirement calculators that let you adjust COLA assumptions manually. Might be worth looking into one that lets you stress test different scenarios rather than relying on a single projection. Hope it eases your mind somewhat.

   Anonymous Heron, Oct 4, 2026

2. A simple retirement calculator that lets you plug in actual expenses instead of generic percentages made a huge difference for me. Worth the few minutes it takes to set up.

   Anonymous Tapir, Oct 7, 2026