Weekly News Quiz

The biggest adjustment ever was 14.3 percent in 1980. From 2001 through 2020, the COLA averaged about 2.2 percent. If there is no inflation, there’s no COLA — that happened in 2009, 2010 and 2015.

“For many people, Social Security is the only inflation-protected income they have in retirement,” says Bill Sweeney, AARP’s senior vice president of government affairs. He adds that for more than 50 years, the COLA “has allowed America’s seniors to keep up as everyday costs continue to rise — from groceries to housing to prescription drugs.”

The Energy Department says that if you use air conditioning, a ceiling fan will let you raise the thermostat about four degrees (at least in rooms that have one) in the summer. Fans that carry the Energy Star label move air 20 percent more efficiently than those that don’t. In the warm-weather months, rotate the fans counterclockwise so that the blades can push the cooler air down. 

Not all of those bills are from expensive hospital stays and surgeries; a large share of older adults with medical debt attribute some of it to routine services such as lab fees and diagnostic tests, according to KFF, a nonpartisan health policy nonprofit.

In a November 2024 report, the Government Accountability Office identified 69 cryptocurrency asset investment options available to 401(k) participants via methods like self-directed brokerage windows. That followed the Securities and Exchange Commission’s approval of Bitcoin exchange-traded funds in January 2024, which allowed for easy trading on major investing platforms.