Insomnia

Tick Tock

Chronic insomnia continues unabated, now in its third consecutive week. Rooting out the cause seemed hopeless at first. Now, the issue has finally been identified … financial stress. Almost laughable, really, given the context.

There’s no need to rehash the antecedents of financial stress. The life savings were simply dwindling away from years of ZIRP and extreme mitigations were imposed to stop the financial hemorrhaging. The triage included the mendicant monk life-style and the miserly ways.

Now, with the central bank of empire raising short-term interest rates sharply and the newly acquired funds from Aunty Lyn’s annuity, the financial emergency has abated. Surely, sleepless nights would have faded away. Not so.

The Social Security Administration announced today that all current recipients will benefit from a 8.7% COLA increase commencing next year. For the lowly amount personally received, there will only be about $65 monthly increase. Still, that’s more money coming in.

In addition, the alleged high inflation figures have now suggested that the central bank of empire may increase the interest rate by 150 basis points by the end of the year. Translated, that means even more dividend income from personal investment accounts.

Why is this news causing sleepless nights? Essentially, there could be more money coming in than going out. Excellent, eh? Well, maybe for someone younger. For an old codger, more income is meaningless. Essentially, there’s a clash between the latter and mortality (and life-style). Translated, there’s nothing to spend any money on. The “stuff” on the personal wish list amounts to $200 or less. An old codger doesn’t need a full wardrobe. Nor does he need a lot of expensive and useless “toys.” These are the “twilight years.” No one notices or cares about old codgers, not even other old codgers. Sheesh!

The Medicare Advantage plan covers the gym membership. It also provides the health rewards (which may be a $140 gift card this year) and the OTC card ($200 for over-the-counter health and dental products). The senior citizen annual bus pass is $35 per year, but will go up to $45 on next renewal. And, the sole credit card provides 1% cash rewards, which is good since all purchases are made with the card.

The “super-duper corona” plan-demic was the impetus for more self-reliance. So, services such as haircuts were no longer sought. Mummifying the rental of the Post Office mailbox will remove the final superfluous expenditure. This is the full extent of the miserly ways. Money is only being paid out for rent at the “old folks home” in Waikiki, for food, and cellular phone service. That’s it.

The decision to not replace the iPhone 12 is now in question. It has a $320 trade-in value for a new iPhone, or up to $645 trade-in value for a new Pixel 7 device. In addition, the problems with Visible are moot. The remedies have already been described in a previous Notes post.

Noooo!

Well, all of the preceding bullshit just to declare that personal financial policies need to be revisited. The real test will occur during this coming holiday season. Will canned beans still be consumed for dinner on those major holidays?

Addendum: Much gratitude must be expressed for joining an excellent and stable Visible Party Pay group. The membership has always remained at four people, the minimum required for the maximum discount. As of October 28th, all members will be “grandfathered” in to the $25 per month rate (until the forced change next year). Oh, the miserly ways!