My understanding is that Grasshopper No.5 has officially been named “Entertainment Editor” of her newspaper. Congrats.
Good times are coming. Yeah, right. Our government is the process of implementing a healthcare plan that has not been written and will take until 2014 fully take effect. Making insurance available to everybody including 32 million new “enrollees” is going to cost huge dollars. Dah!
It is starting. Retired people receive Social Security. Last year there was no incease in the amount retirees got because cost of living was negative. I guess that is okay because we are still in a recession. The prediction is now that at the end of 2011, any increase scheduled for Social Security will be “eaten” up by Medicare Part B (Part B covers doctors and expenses beyond hospitalization). Medicare Part B is deducted from Social Security. So as medical costs soar in the future, net Social Security payments will actually decrease. The logical extreme would be for Medicare Part B payments to get so large that they actually offset all Social Security and retirees will get nothing to live on. Nah, that couldn’t happen could it?
Inflation consumes my purchasing power. The last time I looked, gasoline is about $3.50 per gallon and increasing. Cereal is higher, clothes are higher. Inflation will keep increasing and my Social Security will be decreasing. I don’t think that is good?
My saving grace is that I know my children will take good care of me and their Mom when the money runs out.
The brackets of the NCAA basketball tournament have been busted by lots of upsets. There is one “on-line” website that promoted filling out brackets with a prize to the winner. 9 million people entered the contest. After 2 weekends and 62 games, 2 people still have the potential of winning the NCAA contest. Ugly!
Grasshopper No.3 won the family NCAA contest. Grasshopper No.4 and I will have to dig deep. Hope No.3 doesn’t spend it all in one place.
My snow tires come off the car tomorrow.
Love,
Dad