COLA is BACK!!!!

[broncovet]

After years without a Cola, or very little, Veterans are scheduled to get 2 percent Cola in Jan. 2018.  For a 100 percent Veteran this amounts to "about" $60 per month, depending upon your number of dependents and whether or not you get SMC.

Cola since 2010 follows:

January 2010 -- 0.0% 
January 2011 -- 0.0% 
January 2012 -- 3.6% 
January 2013 -- 1.7% 
January 2014 -- 1.5% 
January 2015 -- 1.7% 
January 2016 -- 0.0% 
January 2017 -- 0.3% 
January 2018 -- 2.0%  

 

 

[john999]

What have we gotten over the last 7 years..........maybe 10% while cost of living has probably gone up 30%.  Computers are cheaper now but all my other bills have gone way up over the last 7 years.  The way the government defines the things that go into the COLA leaves food and energy out of the equation.  Housing prices in my neighborhood are more expensive than they were before the housing bubble crash.  If the only money I was getting was from the VA and my retirement pension I could not buy the house I am living in today.  I am happy to get the 2% since I cannot get that much from a savings account or a money market account.

[Carl the Engineer]

Better than a sharp stick in the eye...

Hamslice

 

[kent101]

I feel better, I had read they were trying to deny COLA as apart of the budget cuts. Over the last three years I'm paying an extra $2000 a year on rent and food alone.

[Navy04]

Bronco, 

Thanks for the info. I am excited to get anything extra at this point. I live in a cheap part of Tx where 10 yrs ago a 100k bought you a nice house , and now a double wide with a couple acres is 150k. As you guys stated, we appreciate the raise, but I dont understand why the Govt does not base it on what life actually costs, not what some bean counter sees on a computer model.

[Holllie Greene]

...every little bit helps.

[JR Reihs]

Yesterday the numbers were released.  What I read , it stated we were at 1.7%, but it is what it is. The article went on to say how the CPI has been hijacked since Clinton was in town and the real number this year using the real formula (BC) the COLA would be 5.3%. If the Goverment used "Real" numbers again they could not afford Billion dolla airplanes ,everlasting wars, bailouts and such, while at the same time, being broke.   We keep taking one for the team , year over year, but 2% is 2%.