Even though the United States Social Security’s inflation-fighting COLA system caused retirees’ checks to increase by 8.7%, for many, the monthly amount is not enough. While it’s true that each of these checks depends on what we do as workers, sometimes it’s impossible to keep track of everything.
And that’s why Social Security payments are so important. As the only source of income for millions of American retirees, not wasting money should be a clear goal in a pensioner’s financial plan. So we must always monitor what we spend our money on and we must monitor that we will never waste it.
Doing some of the actions we will see below would be considered wasting our Social Security. Many financial experts believe that the best savings is not to spend on things we don’t need. And this is where the crux of having a good retirement comes in. Regardless of how much Social Security check we have, wasting it is always the worst idea. Do you save a little from your monthly check?
Ways to Waste Social Security Money
Let’s take a look at a few ways to waste Social Security money. Still, since every citizen is totally different and everyone’s economy is something that changes a lot every month, always keep in mind that one tip won’t work for every citizen. Anyway, pay attention because some of these expenses could completely ruin your monthly budget.
- Ignoring your health. We start with something not directly related to money but actually related. Ignoring your health completely is something that will cause our Social Security check to fall short. Medical expenses can be very high, even if we have access to Medicare. That’s why we should watch out for our health by getting some daily exercise and eating healthy.
- Have two cars (or even one). Public transportation should be our means of transportation. We probably have a car that we only take twice a month and for which we pay a lot of money. In that case, it is better to sell it, otherwise we will have to pay a lot of money from our Social Security check to keep it. Walking to places or using public transportation are the best options.
- Buying unnecessary things. The Internet is a very dangerous place for finances. If we collect only our Social Security check every month we should stay away from buying unnecessary things, like most of what we order online.
By keeping these three things in mind we can surely save a lot of money every month on our Social Security. At the end of the day, having a car is wasting money, especially if we don’t use it. As for unnecessary purchases, we should never make them. Finally, the issue of health is the most important of all, so you should never forget it.