Money & Economics

[David L]

The wife and I just got our SS notice of 2.8% COLA increase, between us, we have a $93 monthly increase in SS for next year. This total is after her Part B increase:


Her increase was $54 a month
Mine increased $39 a month

But she has not received the new rate for her Plan G, which usually increases yearly, but last year was only around $30, so we will see...

Part D she does not pay anything and her Meds are free. Medicare | Wellcare

So our monthly increase may only be about $50-60...but we will take it

 

[David L]

I bought a pack of smokes today for $.50 less than last week, and my mustard and butter were BOGO at Publix. Must be no inflation.

Golden Age

Cigs?

Man, I saw $9 a pack the other day. We have one family member still smoking. Doing the ruff math, she is paying $3000+ a year for her habit at a pack a day.

Back when I started it was around 50 cents a pack for Marlboros. $180 a year.

Talk about Tobacco inflation.

Now I know why my Muni Bond guy had me buy Bonds from a California Tobacco company...

 

[David L]

The goofy part is that we have NEVER carried a balance over on our credit cards, so we don't "rate" a top tier credit rating...

Our credit card is the only thing on our credit report. Nor do we carry a balance over either...

Our credit score is in the 800s but we don't borrow anymore so that score is meaningless to us.

 

[David L]

Still love this video:

 

[bigredfish]

Our credit card is the only thing on our credit report. Nor do we carry a balance over either...

Our credit score is in the 800s but we don't borrow anymore so that score is meaningless to us.

Same. We have 0 debt and our score have been stuck at 810-820 for a couple of years.
We use one card to pay monthly bills (wife gets her frequent flyer miles that way) and pay it off each month.

 

[David L]

Cigs?

Man, I saw $9 a pack the other day. We have one family member still smoking. Doing the ruff math, she is paying $3000+ a year for her habit at a pack a day.

Back when I started it was around 50 cents a pack for Marlboros. $180 a year.

Talk about Tobacco inflation.

Now I know why my Muni Bond guy had me buy Bonds from a California Tobacco company...

Dang, just looking back to 2000 when the wife and I finally quit. My memory says we were paying $2 to $2.50 a pack, can't truly remember.
But at $2 a pack, I was smoking half a pack a day, the wife too. So a full pack a day would be $700+ a year..at $2.50 a pack, $900+ a year...times two for the wife and I

Wow...when you smoke you don't do smoking math

 

[bigredfish]

Inflation

 

[David L]

Same. We have 0 debt and our score have been stuck at 810-820 for a couple of years.
We use one card to pay monthly bills (wife gets her frequent flyer miles that way) and pay it off each month.

Extremely smart, IMO

I thought of getting a second credit card for backup. We had a few times our credit card company locked our account for fraud when we were abroad, or out of state, even when I called them before to have them note our travel plans. But worse case the wife could use a debit card, I guess, we would just lose our reward points.

 

[bigredfish]

Extremely smart, IMO

I thought of getting a second credit card for backup. We had a few times our credit card company locked our account for fraud when we were abroad, or out of state, even when I called them before to have them note our travel plans. But worse case the wife could use a debit card, I guess, we would just lose our reward points.

Yep we each have two credit cards and two debit cards from separate banks just for such occasions.

I still have an old business card from my Firearm Instructing days (just because it has a big limit) and put a small $15/mo charge on it just to keep it active. Pay it each month also.

 

[bigredfish]

It’s Fine. Everything’s fine.

 

[David L]

It’s Fine. Everything’s fine.

All while ordering online with their $1000+ phones, hahaha

 

[David L]

The wife and I just got our SS notice of 2.8% COLA increase, between us, we have a $93 monthly increase in SS for next year. This total is after BEFORE her Part B increase:
View attachment 233607

Her increase was $54 a month
Mine increased $39 a month

But she has not received the new rate for her Plan G, which usually increases yearly, but last year was only around $30, so we will see...

Part D she does not pay anything and her Meds are free. Medicare | Wellcare

So our monthly increase may only be about $50-60...but we will take it

UPDATE:

Wife called on her Plan G this morning, found out it went up $38.28 a month, each state is different, she was told. So her SS increase is $54 a month but taking the Part B ($17.90 increase) difference, her increase is only $36.10, then add the Plan G increase of $38.28 and she is paying $2.18 more a month in 2026 compared to 2025

So taking my $39 increase minus my wife's $2.18 decrease:
We are getting only $36.82 more a month in 2026.

This will all change when I get on Medicare though...

 

[bigredfish]

 

[David L]

RAM is pretty much an isolated issue. Some people are blaming AI pushing prices up on RAM, yet CPUs and GPUs have not increased, yet. Last time RAM went crazy was due to a plant fire back in the 90s

Computer memory-chip prices stabilize after factory fire sends them soaring - UPI Archives

Computer memory-chip retailers say prices have stabilized in recent days after doubling in the past two weeks after fire destroyed a key Japanese chip-resin...

www.upi.com

I have bought quite a few things here this last month and the month before. Compared to last year I do not see much, if any increase, this is through Amazon and Walmart online...actually my Wrangler jeans, which I paid $18 for was cheaper than the $25 I paid last year.

Just check Procs, prices are still normal, so far, they have not gone up. But need to keep an I on Nvidia chips, like GPUs, they were highly used for Mining, guessing the demand for AI will hike prices too...

Newegg:

 

[mat200]

It’s Fine. Everything’s fine.

FYI - one data point, PayPal offered 20% discounts over the Black Friday week if you used their Buy now, pay in 4 installments options.

SO, you do want to watch for those games.

 

[David L]

FYI - one data point, PayPal offered 20% discounts over the Black Friday week if you used their Buy now, pay in 4 installments options.

SO, you do want to watch for those games.

So is it kinda like a layaway, in that you don't pay interest? Or do they charge a fee to pay later?

 

[mat200]

Just check Procs, prices are still normal, so far, they have not gone up. But need to keep an I on Nvidia chips, like GPUs, they were highly used for Mining, guessing the demand for AI will hike prices too...

Newegg:
View attachment 233636

CPU prices are good, and that was especially good price .. tho, you do have to get a GPU with that chip ( KF ) the 265K has video included.

RAM killed me, can not even find new modules right now online easily .. and the used DellRefurbished PCs at times have been stripped of RAM down to 8GB
( they currently have a cyber week deal going on .. was looking to upgrade a few of the families PCs due to Windows 11 requirements .. and looking for RAM shows a major shortage from ebay, amazon, microcenter, newegg, BH, and others .. and yes, it is partially due to AI ram demand and the fabricators switching to meet OpenAI and other AI infrastructure demand .. )

At this point, I would recommend anyone interested in PCs to get the right amount of RAM from the start, as upgrading will be a challenge. Also do pick up any GPU you want today, as I can see the shortage of RAM affecting prices in the coming months.

Amazon's pricing you can see the BF sale on the Intel Core Ultra 265K ..




Dell Refurbished :

Shop Dell Refurbished | Affordable Refurbished Laptops, PCs, More

Shop quality refurbished laptops, desktops, and more from Dell Refurbished. Great deals, shipping, and warranty options for top performance and value.

www.dellrefurbished.com

 

[mat200]

So is it kinda like a layaway, in that you don't pay interest? Or do they charge a fee to pay later?

iirc, the deal sites indicated no additional charges .. so the smart folks set up autopay.

PayPal and others playing this game will be looking for customers to trip up and get in a trap.

Hopefully people playing that game do not get laid off.

 

[David L]

CPU prices are good, and that was especially good price .. tho, you do have to get a GPU with that chip ( KF ) the 265K has video included.

RAM killed me, can not even find new modules right now online easily .. and the used DellRefurbished PCs at times have been stripped of RAM down to 8GB
( they currently have a cyber week deal going on .. was looking to upgrade a few of the families PCs due to Windows 11 requirements .. and looking for RAM shows a major shortage from ebay, amazon, microcenter, newegg, BH, and others .. and yes, it is partially due to AI ram demand and the fabricators switching to meet OpenAI and other AI infrastructure demand .. )

At this point, I would recommend anyone interested in PCs to get the right amount of RAM from the start, as upgrading will be a challenge. Also do pick up any GPU you want today, as I can see the shortage of RAM affecting prices in the coming months.

Amazon's pricing you can see the BF sale on the Intel Core Ultra 265K ..


View attachment 233643

Dell Refurbished :

Shop Dell Refurbished | Affordable Refurbished Laptops, PCs, More

Shop quality refurbished laptops, desktops, and more from Dell Refurbished. Great deals, shipping, and warranty options for top performance and value.

www.dellrefurbished.com

I picked up a Micro Center Combo a few months ago, Great Deal since the 14700k was $300 alone. Now with crazy memory prices I am glad I got lucky when I upgraded. Since it was a 14th Gen and the 13th was also affected by overclocking BIOS on motherboards, I quickly upgraded my BIOS on my build. The Proc. has been a steady 35c in Temps, about 40c when reaved up...no problems so far, Intel gave us 13 & 14th Gen owners a 5 year warranty. Time will tell.

Post in thread 'Windows 10 EOS (22H2) Oct. 14, 2025'

Sep 9, 2025

Sharing what I found out:

I ran across an article from last year talking about 13/14 Gen Intel CPUs having degradation issues. Basically heat issues if overclocked or if voltage is set too high. Systems were slowing down and in some cases crashing.

Every new processor seems to always have heat issues, pairing the right cooler is essential. But this is the first time, that I know of, where Intel extended people's warranties from 3 years to 5 because of the issue. The fix, if you can call it that, is a BIOS motherboard update that caps the voltage and temp. settings. Guessing no...

• David L

• 

I remember back when I did my last main gaming PC build, DDR5 Mem. just came out. Should I buy a DDR4 Mammaboard or pay the much higher price, double actually for DDR5? Well I paid way too much for my DDR5 RAM, sure enough 6 months later prices dropped to a normal price. Oh well, should of waited I guess. What I like about the Micro Center combos is I normally buy CPU/Motherboard/Memory first, I bench fire it up to get to BIOS, before CPU heats up too much, then I start buying Case/Extra Fans/PSU/AIO/SSDs/etc. to finish the build. I have 30 days to return any of the combo so after a successful bench I can breathe easier getting my other components. I have had a few bad Mammaboards I had to take back over the years of doing these combos. Plus No One beats their prices. I was told they make little to no money on these combos, what the do is get people in store and they make money on all the rest of the stuff, plus they push their extended warranties so you can go to them instead of having to send back the parts to the manufacture which can take a couple of weeks on return. Or use to...