I retired from the Air Force 1 Sep 2011 after 21 years of service. Just found out that retirees will be receiving a 1.7% COLA(Cost of Living Adjustment) effective 31 Dec. Just checked my pay statement and that raise amount is $48.43 a month. The increase is also for my disability payment that I receive from the VA and that's an additional $20. So that's a total increase of $68.43 a month of which I will round to $70. That's an extra $840 a year!!!
I'm not sure how the "fiscal cliff" will affect anything but I'm thinking not since this is retirement pay and not wages but we will see. At least the $20 VA increase is nontaxable.
What I decided to do with the extra funds is two-fold. For the first 6 months of 2013 I will save this and all snowflakes for my vacation/travel fund. I have at least 3 trips I may be taking before July. For the following 6 months, all snowflakes will go towards Christmas fund. If I come in under budget for Christmas 2013, then I will throw that towards the mortgage. All snowflakes from Swagbucks will go towards Christmas becuase it will probably be some form of giftcard.
Retirement Snowflake
December 14th, 2012 at 01:52 am