Social Security increases benefits by 2.5% for 2025

The 2025 Social Security cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) has been announced.

The Social Security Administration has announced a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) to recipients’ monthly Social Security and Supplemental Security Income benefits. Nearly 68 million Americans will see the 2.5% increase in their payments beginning in January 2025.

The 2.5% increase aims to help beneficiaries keep up with inflation. Although lower than the 3.2% COLA for 2024 and significantly less than the 8.7% increase in 2023 and 5.9% in 2022, it still provides a welcome boost to recipients’ monthly payments. The COLA is calculated based on the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W), which measures the average change in prices over time that consumers pay for a basket of goods and services. The COLA is designed to ensure that the purchasing power of Social Security and SSI benefits is not eroded by inflation.

According to the Social Security Administration, on average, retired workers currently collect $1,927 per month in Social Security payments, or roughly $23,124 per year. The 2.5% COLA will add about $49 per month to those payments or $588 for the year.

Keep in mind all federal benefits must be direct deposited. So if you haven’t already started receiving benefits, you need to establish electronic transfers to your bank or financial institution. Connect with your advisor to better understand how this COLA adjustment may impact your overall financial plan.

Source: Social Security Administration

The consumer price index for urban wage earners and clerical workers is a monthly measure of the average change over time in the prices paid by urban wage earners and clerical workers for a market basket of consumer goods and services.

Links are being provided for information purposes only. Raymond James is not affiliated with and does not endorse, authorize or sponsor any of the listed websites or their respective sponsors. Raymond James is not responsible for the content of any website or the collection or use of information regarding any website’s users and/or members. Raymond James does not provide tax or legal services. Please discuss these matters with the appropriate professional.

Make your final tax-saving moves before Dec. 31

Proactive investors know that the months before year-end can be an ideal time to make strategic adjustments.

While keeping in mind your long-term investment goals, meet with your advisor and coordinate with your tax professional to examine nuances and changes that could impact your typical year-end planning.

Mind your RMDs
Be thoughtful about required minimum distributions (RMDs) to ensure that you comply with the rules – especially as some of those rules have shifted throughout the pandemic.

Investors who reach a certain age are required to take RMDs from their IRAs. You’ll face a hefty 25% tax penalty on amounts not withdrawn from your IRA to meet the RMD, so be sure to speak with your advisor to ensure you’ve met your obligations.

Note: If the RMD is timely corrected within two years, the excise tax rate could drop to 10%. A few reminders for future distribution planning:

• RMDs can be automated with your advisor to help ensure you don’t miss applicable deadlines.
• Your first RMD can be delayed until April 1 of the year after you reach 70 1/2, 72 or 73 (depending on your year of birth). If you delay, however, you must also take your second RMD in the same tax year. This can inflate your income, which may affect your tax bracket. Check with your advisor to determine what is applicable and best for you.
• Subsequent RMDs must be taken no later than December 31 of each calendar year.
• Qualified charitable distributions allow traditional IRA owners who are 70 1/2 and older to gift up to $105,000 from their IRA to a qualified charity.This is a non-taxable distribution from their IRA and can be used to satisfy an RMD.
• Be mindful of how taking a distribution will impact your taxable income or tax bracket. If you are in a low tax bracket, discuss with your financial advisor and tax professional about taking an additional strategic distribution at that lower rate.

To harvest or not to harvest
Evaluate whether you could benefit from tax-loss harvesting – selling a losing investment to offset gains. If your capital losses exceed your capital gains, your excess losses up to $3,000 (single or married filing jointly) can be used to offset ordinary income. Any additional losses can be carried forward to future years. With your advisor, examine the following subtleties when aiming to decrease your tax bill:

• Short-term gains are taxed at a higher marginal rate; aim to reduce those first.
• Don’t disrupt your long-term investment strategy when harvesting losses.
• Be aware of “wash sale” rules that affect new purchases before and after the sale of a security. If you sell a security at a loss but purchase another “substantially identical” security – within 30 days before or after the sale date – the IRS likely will consider that a wash sale and disallow the loss deduction. The IRS will look at all your accounts – 401(k), IRA, taxable, etc. – when determining if a wash sale occurred.

Manage your income and deductions
Those at or near the next tax bracket should pay close attention to anything that might bump them up and plan to reduce taxable income before the end of the year.

• Determine if it makes sense to accelerate deductions or defer income, potentially allowing you to minimize your current tax liability. Some companies may give you an opportunity to defer bonuses and so forth into a future year as well.
• Certain retirement plans also can help you defer taxes. Contributing to a traditional 401(k) allows you to pay income tax only when you withdraw money from the plan in the future, at which point your income and tax rate may be lower or you may have more deductions available to offset the income.*
• Evaluate your income sources – earned income, corporate bonds, municipal bonds, qualified dividends, etc. – to help reduce the overall tax impact.

Evaluate life changes
From welcoming a new family member to moving to a new state, any number of life changes may have impacted your circumstances over the past year. Bring your financial advisor up to speed on major life changes and ask how they could affect your year-end planning.

• Moving can significantly impact tax and estate planning, especially if you’ve relocated from a high income tax state to a low income tax state, from a state with a state income tax to one without (or vice versa), or if you’ve moved to a state with increased asset protection. Note that moving expenses themselves are no longer deductible for most taxpayers.
• Give thought to your family members’ life changes as well as your own – job changes, births, deaths, weddings and divorces, for example, can all necessitate changes – and consider updating your estate documents accordingly.

Next steps
Consider these to-do’s as you prepare to make the most of year-end financial moves, and discuss with your financial advisor and tax professional:

• Manage your income and deductions, paying close atten­tion to your marginal tax bracket.
• Evaluate your investments, keeping in mind whether you could benefit from tax-loss harvesting.
• Make a list of the life changes you and your family have experienced during the year.

*Withdrawals from qualified accounts, such as an IRA, prior to age 59 1/2 may also be subject to a 10% federal penalty tax. RMDs are generally subject to federal income tax and may be subject to state taxes. Consult your tax advisor to assess your situation. Raymond James does not provide tax or legal services. Please discuss these matters with the appropriate professional.

Links are being provided for information purposes only. Raymond James is not affiliated with and does not endorse, authorize or sponsor any of the listed websites or their respective sponsors. Raymond James is not responsible for the content of any website or the collection or use of information regarding any website’s users and/or members. Raymond James does not provide tax or legal services. Please discuss these matters with the appropriate professional.

Light & Fluffy High-Protein Smoked Salmon Egg Casserole Recipe (9 Ingredients)

Prep Time: 15 Min Cook Time: 45 Min Total Time: 1 Hour

Ingredients
1 1/2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3/4 cup red bell pepper, diced
1/2 cup yellow onion, diced
5 ounces fresh baby spinach
12 medium eggs
2 cups cottage cheese
1 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
8 ounces cold-smoked, wild-caught sockeye salmon, diced

Instructions
To a large skillet or sauté pan with sides over medium heat, add the olive oil, onions and peppers. Sauté until crisp tender, about 3 minutes. Add the spinach and sauté until wilted, about 1 minute. Remove from heat.
Place the eggs and cottage cheese in a blender and whip until smooth, about 30 seconds.
Pour the cottage cheese mixture into a medium mixing bowl. Add the mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses. Stir to combine.
Add the vegetable mixture to the cheese mixture. Season with salt and pepper, to taste, if desired. Stir to combine.
Fold in the smoked salmon until incorporated.
Pour the mixture into a baking pan or casserole dish (see Recipe Notes) that's been sprayed with cooking spray.
Bake in a preheated 350-degree F oven for 30 to 40 minutes, or until the casserole is cooked through and golden. Allow to cool for a few minutes before slicing and serving.

Notes
I used my medium-sized Le Creuset casserole dish, which measures 10x8 inches.
I used a red bell pepper, but you can use any color bell pepper you prefer.
I used cold-smoked, wild-caught sockeye salmon, but you can use your favorite smoked salmon.
Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator or freezer.

Recipe cooking times, nutritional information and servings are approximate and provided for your convenience. However, 30Seconds is not responsible for the outcome of any recipe, nor may you have the same results because of variations in ingredients, temperatures, altitude, errors, omissions or cooking/baking abilities. Any nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and it is up to the individual to ascertain accuracy. To ensure image quality, we may occasionally use stock photography.

Links are being provided for information purposes only. Raymond James is not affiliated with and does not endorse, authorize or sponsor any of the listed websites or their respective sponsors. Raymond James is not responsible for the content of any website or the collection or use of information regarding any website’s users and/or members. Raymond James does not provide tax or legal services. Please discuss these matters with the appropriate professional.

Are your important documents secure and accessible?

Keep your financial life organized with a thoughtful combination of digital and physical storage solutions.

Pop quiz: In an emergency, could your loves ones find your current will and power of attorney? If you had to evacuate your home, could you quickly get your hands on your passport, deeds and keepsakes? Are your documents in a watertight, fireproof safe, or scattered around unprotected?

It’s not enough to have the right documents – it’s also crucial to have them updated, neatly stored and accessible. Read on for five tips that can help you keep important files safe and handy.

Equip yourself for digital success
If you’d like to have a secure and organized system for paper, a scanner and a shredder are a must. Think you might need that document, but you can’t fit another thing in your file cabinet? Scan and toss, or shred if it contains sensitive data like a Social Security number.

Digital storage has many upsides. You don’t have to pay much attention to space restrictions as you would with physical files. Also, it’s easier to securely share and keep items, and you can search for files by dates or keywords.

Some fancy scanners such as the ScanSnap automatically sort documents based on file type (photo versus receipt) and name files based on scanned content. If you don’t have the budget or room for another machine, a smartphone app is a handy alternative.

One last essential tool: a service for storing and syncing your digital data in the cloud, so you don’t lose everything if your computer is stolen or damaged. Which one you choose will depend on what features are most important to you, but popular services include Dropbox, Google Drive and iCloud.

It’s also smart to take advantage of any proprietary storage features your financial advisor may offer, which allow you to securely store and share financial data with each other, as well as trusted family members, and helps them coordinate with other professionals (such as your accountant at tax time).

Think like an executor
The most crucial papers to organize are the ones those closest to you will need when you’re no longer around. This includes your will, bank statements, insurance policies and birth certificate, for starters. So put yourself in your executor’s shoes when storing estate paperwork – this kind of planning is about helping others.

Online services that organize and store all your vital details in a single convenient place are the latest innovation on this front. Some, such as Everplans, will even walk you through making a plan for everything from funeral details to healthcare wishes, sort of like TurboTax for end-of-life planning. You could also use an off-the-shelf workbook such as “The LastingMatters Organizer” to document your wishes.

As for notarized physical documents, storing them in a fireproof safe makes sense for most. Be sure your family knows where the safe itself is, how to get into it and what they can expect to find inside. You can also keep an extra copy in a safe deposit box or with your estate attorney.

Know what to keep
Certain official records deserve physical safekeeping: passports, Social Security cards, birth certificates and adoption decrees, property and vehicle deeds, marriage certificates, divorce decrees, signed and notarized powers of attorney, a will and medical directive paperwork. While you can pay to get another copy of many of these, it’s better to have them and not need them than the opposite.

Design a breadcrumb trail
This tip is especially relevant for worst-case-scenario documents such as your medical directive. Experts recommend keeping a copy in your car’s glove box, as well as giving copies to your doctor and your preferred healthcare proxy. You can then list these as “in case of emergency” or ICE contacts on a card in your wallet and in your smartphone’s emergency call screen (for iPhone users, add this data in Apple Health; Android users can go to Settings > About phone > Emergency information).

Don’t forget about digital access that your loved ones will one day need, which means everything from email and bank accounts to photo and music sites. Few of us think to create a paper trail to help locate these accounts and login IDs because it might invite unauthorized access. However, there is a secure way to guide your heirs.

The first step is to make an inventory. Next, document the details in a safe place. You can use a secure spreadsheet template to get started at yourdigitalafterlife.com or you can use a service like LastPass, which has an emergency access feature that allows you to hand down passwords to heirs who can then securely maintain or close your accounts based on your wishes. If it’s your main household responsibility to pay the bills and keep tabs on financial accounts, we’re talking to you. You want to leave a legacy – not a logistical headache.

Create a command station
Productivity pros say every home office needs a central collection spot for notes, bills, reminders, paperwork and actionable items. To make this a working system, you’ll have to regularly plow through it all, whether daily or weekly. This will help free your mind to focus on the given task at hand, knowing your household has a system for tackling all the incoming paper.

Progress, not perfection
If your home office is a wreck right now, start small. Pick one tip that speaks to your specific situation and take action. What feels like a small win today could make a major, lasting difference for your loved ones.

If you’re still feeling overwhelmed, you can seek out a professional organizer or turn to your advisor. They know your financial situation and can help you focus on the record-keeping tasks that are important for your life.

Sources: Real Simple; pcmag.com; “Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity;" LastPass; yourdigitalafterlife.com; Everplans; NPR’s Life Kit; keepitsafe.com

Raymond James is not affiliated with any of the organizations mentioned. Raymond James does not provide tax or legal advice. Please discuss these matters with the appropriate professional.

Links are being provided for information purposes only. Raymond James is not affiliated with and does not endorse, authorize or sponsor any of the listed websites or their respective sponsors. Raymond James is not responsible for the content of any website or the collection or use of information regarding any website’s users and/or members. Raymond James does not provide tax or legal services. Please discuss these matters with the appropriate professional.