Harry's Monthly EView

Harry’s Monthly EView

LayLine Asset Management Inc

Harry J. Campbell III, CMT

12/2/25

Contents

Investment Thesis: Miscellaneous Observations

Investing for Retirement: Retirement Plan and IRA Update 2026

Retirement Topics: Reminder: New Tax Deduction for Seniors.

Investment Thesis: The Communication Economy

Thesis Statement

The central claim is that Communication, and what develops from it, will be the primary force in the economy, driving growth, structure, diversity, and resiliency in the US economy for a very long time to come.

Miscellaneous Observations

            More appropriately referred to as random thoughts, here are a few as we head towards a new year.

ChatGPT: It’s been three years since ChatGPT was released to the public, kick starting the Communication Economy with speed not seen in prior new economic cycles.  It’s hard to argue against the notion that ChatGPT and its publicly accessible large language models (LLM) is the most transformational new technology since the advent of the internet, smartphones and personal computers. However, all of those transformational cycles mentioned took quite some time and many different paths to develop into the technology we use every day now.  I would expect, based on history, that the same will be true for LLM.

Personal Productivity Gains:  The ability to have same day and short term deliveries is made possible, in large part, by organizations communicating using LLM, both with its employees and its customers.  Companies can update constantly what they have, where it is, its price, style of shipping and so on.  They are able to communicate all that information with all the employees and contractors so they can execute with a quick response time.  On Friday I needed a part to complete a project I was working on.  Instead of getting in the car and driving about 10 miles, one way, to buy the part, I had it delivered for free and it arrived in about two hours.  It would have cost about $10 in car expenses and taken almost an hour to get it, which was time I spent working on the project.  Much more productive experience.  

Positive Jobs Outlook:  There are two, among others, ways to consider how LLM (A.I.) will influence the workforce.  One way is to think of it in terms of how many jobs LLM will replace.  The other is to think about how LLM will be put to work improving the output of existing workers and how many new jobs will be created. When the PC entered the corporate office it was assumed that the secretary was obsolete.  As it turned out companies needed even more people to run the PC and process the data.  The PC data provided companies with valuable operating information, allowing companies to run more efficiently, profitably, allowing companies to hire more people, and so on.  Like the PC, LLM is a tool, a very powerful tool that will alter the way businesses are run.

Investing for Retirement

Retirement Plan and IRA Update 2026

Retirement Plan Update

This is not a complete explanation of the current retirement plan rules, phase-out ranges, catch up options, exceptions, and changes.  Visit IRS.gov, Retirement Plans for a thorough evaluation of specific plan types. 

• For 2026, 401(k), 403(b) and most 457 plans increased the maximum contribution to $24,500, up from $23,500 in 2025.  For individuals 50 and over, the catch up contribution increased from $7,500 to $8,000, for a maximum contribution in 2026 of $32,500, up from $31,000 in 2025.  For individuals aged 60-63 the catch up contribution remains $11,250 for 2026.

• SEP plan contribution limits for 2026 is 25% of earnings up to $72,000, up from $70,000 in 2025.  Compensation limits do apply.

• Solo 401K contributions for 2026 are: employee maximum contribution is $24,500, plus $8,000 in catch up contributions for those 50 and over, and a company contribution equal to 25% of employees compensation or self-employment income.  The maximum is $72,000 plus catch up contributions for 2026.  For those 60-63, the maximum catch up contribution remains $11,250. 

• Simple plans maximum contributions for 2026 is $17,000 up from $16,500 in 2025.  The catch up for those over 50 is $4,000 for 2026, up from $3,500 the prior year. For those 60-63, the special catch up contribution maximum remains $5,250.  Employers contribute either up to a 3% match or 2% nonelective contribution.

IRA Update

While on the topic retirement investing, there is still time to contribute to an IRA or Roth.  April 15^th, 2026 is the deadline (for most of us) for IRA and Roth contributions for 2025.  Having said that here are a couple of notes;

• There is now no age limit on contributing to an IRA or Roth, however there are AGI (adjusted gross income) limits on contributions to either a traditional or Roth IRA.

• There needs to be taxable compensation earned to make contributions.

• You can contribute to both a IRA and a company retirement plan within the contribution limits, adjusted each year.  There are phase-out ranges if married and one spouse is covered by a company retirement plan.

• A Roth needs to be open for five years before tax free gains can be withdrawn.  After the five years and reaching 59 ½, withdrawals can be taken tax free.

• IRA contribution limits for 2026 are $7,500 up from $7,000 for 2025.  If age 50 or older the catch up contribution is $1,100 for 2026, up from $1,000 for 2025.

There are many nuances regarding traditional IRA and Roth.  This is not a complete discussion, just presented to create a little awareness.  For all the details see IRS Publication 590-A for contributions details and 590-B for distribution details.

Retirement Topic

            Reminder: New Tax Deduction for Seniors.

The tax bill that was passed by Congress, commonly referred to as the OBBB, includes a new deduction for taxpayers aged 65 and older, seniors, effective for 2025 tax year.  Something to consider, if you pay estimated taxes, it might be worthwhile to consider recalculating estimated taxes for 2026 based on the new senior tax deduction.  As clearly stated in our disclosures, we don’t provide tax advice, having said that, here are the basics:

• A $6,000 deduction is available, starting in 2025, for single seniors with MAGI (modified adjusted gross income) up to $75,000 and a $12,000 ($6,000 * two people) deduction for married seniors with MAGI (modified adjusted gross income) up to $150,000.

• Above those income levels the deduction is phased out and becomes zero at $150,000 for singles and $250,000 for married, filing jointly.

The math to determine the phase out amount for a particular level of income is a little tricky. The phase out is 6% of the MAGI over $75,000 for singles and $150,000 for married couples.  For example, a married couple with a MAGI of $200,000 would be $50,000 over the income limit for the full deduction. The calculation for the reduction in the deduction would be $50,000 ($200,000 - $150,000) 6% 2 (two people) = $6,000.  This leaves the married couple with a $6,000 ($12,000 - $6,000) tax deduction.  For a single senior with a MAGI of $100,000 the calculation for the reduction in the deduction would be $25,000 ($100,000 - $75,000) 6% 1 (one person) = $1,500 leaving a $4,500 ($6,000 - $1,500) deduction.  The deduction is zero above MAGI of $150,000 for singles and MAGI of $250,000 for married couples.

As I said, the math is a little tricky, but it works. Keep in mind this new deduction has a short shelf life, as it ends in 2028.   

Harry’s Monthly EView

LayLine Asset Management Inc

Harry J. Campbell III, CMT

11/4/25

Contents

Investment Thesis: A.I. Business Models

Investing for Retirement: 4% Rule Update

Retirement Topics: Social Security and Medicare Numbers for 2026

Investment Thesis: The Communication Economy

Thesis Statement

The central claim is that Communication, and what develops from it, will be the primary force in the economy, driving growth, structure, diversity, and resiliency in the US economy for a very long time to come.

A.I. Business Models

            Last month, the topic for the investment thesis was A.I. (artificial intelligence) productivity.  This month we will take a brief look at how A.I. and current business models are developing.  Before moving on a couple of things to keep in mind. When it comes to A.I. business models one can assume several things: the variability of A.I. business models is substantial, the level of A.I. adoption will be highly varied, and a firms ability to change from being a non A.I. driven business model to one driven by A.I. will be quite challenging and the results, success if you will, are to say the least, uncertain. 

Regarding variability of A.I business models, on one extreme is a business model where everything from the ground up is A.I. derived.  The manufacturing process is fully automated, customer contact is directly with A.I., and business operations i.e. accounting, legal etc. are performed exclusively by A.I.  Management is the only business activity that requires human input.  In this model, humans provide the creative input, and everything else needed to run the business is relatively redundant and well suited for A.I..  On the other extreme, A.I. has only a narrow and rather specific function, such as data retrieval and analysis, relating exclusively to assisting humans in accomplishing their current job.  For example in this business model the accounting department will have accountants to provide reports for management and file tax forms, but the corporate data for the accountants is compiled by A.I..  My guess (hard to know the future) is that most companies will fall somewhere in between.

Regarding the challenges of adopting A.I., how does management go about implementing A.I. across a large and diverse business structure with multiple divisions and product lines.  How does a company install A.I. to handle customer calls, but still manage to add a personal touch in customer service?  How does management adopt to the needs of having A.I. compile all the corporate data across multiple divisions and product lines, and still manage accountants who interpret the data for tax and management purposes?  What structures does management need to adopt to manage A.I. across multiple corporate divisions with vastly different operating processes and needs. On the manufacturing floor, what’s the management style needed to manage those who are going to repair and maintain the robotics and how are they going communicate with an A.I. driven robot.  There are many more questions, but I think you get my drift.  It’s going to be a very long learning process, for both humans and A.I..

Probably the most complex attribute for incorporating A.I. into the business model is experience, or a lack thereof.  Companies have decades, some centuries of experience running the business that they can rely on.  A.I. is so new, and yet so transformative, few have the experience to handle what will be a very complicated process taking place in such a short period of time.  The skill set required for this transformation has not been developed, much less tested, to the degree that large multi national companies with 10’s of thousand employees, hundreds of product lines, and operations in many locations require to successfully adopt A.I. across a company.  Challenging is an understatement and the results far from certain.

Investing for Retirement

 4% Rule Update

            It’s not too early to start planning for distributions for income from investment accounts for 2026.  As a note to self, consider putting the 4% needed for the year in a money market account at the beginning of the year just in case the markets are down for the year.  That way you will avoid taking investment principal when it’s lower in value.      

I wrote this the last time the 4% Rule was published.  “Something to keep in mind regarding the so called 4% Rule.  Many investors taking RMD (required minimum distributions) will be required to take more than the 4% suggested by the rule.  For example, the RMD factor for an eighty year old is 20.2, translating to a ~4.95% RMD for the year.  That’s ~20% more income than the 4% rule suggests can be taken.  Taxable accounts have no RMD.  To keep distributions close to 4% on an overall account basis, one can take less than 4% from a taxable account to balance the 4.95% required to be taken from accounts with a RMD.”

4% Rule

(Originally Published 1/5/21)

The financial media is once again obsessed with the so-called “4% rule”.  It suggests how much can be taken from a portfolio each year without depleting its principal.  There is no official 4% rule.  It’s a rule of thumb at best, and it used to be the 5% rule.  There is exhaustive work behind the “rule” which indicates that there has been no historic precedence in US markets where an investor has taken 4% income (before taxes) over long periods of time (decades) and run out of principal.  If it were only so simple.

Before getting to the numbers, let’s look at who promotes the rule, Wall Street.  They have little incentive in promoting any distribution objective, as it reduces AUM (assets under management) and that reduces potential revenues.  When forced to come up with withdrawal advice, it will be conducive to growing an account more slowly, but growing it none-the-less.  By the way, if we make 2% in interest and dividends on a portfolio, investors only need 2% in capital gains to achieve the 4% withdrawal goal.  Long term market growth, by any measure, has exceeded 4% over time on an annual basis, making the 4% rule a fairly low hurdle to climb over.

Back to the numbers.  At the beginning of each year, for many retirees, the question is how much in withdrawals can I take without damaging the underlying principal that produces the income and capital gains to be withdrawn. 

Using 2020 as an example, let’s say a portfolio was up 10% (a 50% growth - 50% income benchmark was up ~ 13% in 2020).  Taking the 4% for income would leave a 6% gain in the portfolio. ($100,000 portfolio gains 10%, that’s $10,000, now take the 4%, $4,000, leaving a gain of $6,000, 6%).  The question is, bank the 6% for future years when the markets performance might be negative, or increase the 4% to 6%, spend a little more and still bank 4% for the future. 

As said, if only that simple. 

Retirement Topic

Social Security and Medicare Numbers for 2026

            The numbers are in. The Social Security COLA (cost of living adjustment) is 2.8% for 2026.  Last year it was 2.5%.  With inflation (the official rate) running at or above ~3% or for the past couple of years, those on Social Security are, and have been, losing ground financially and face a reduction in their standard of living.

            The monthly premium (for most people) for Medicare Part B is going up from $185.00/month in 2025 to $206.50/month for 2026, a $21.50/month increase.  Medicare Part B deductible has increased to $288.00/year, up from $257.00/year for 2025, a $33.00/year increase.  That is a ~12% increase for both Medicare Part B premium and the Part B deductible.

            The average Social Security benefit for all recipients (retired workers, spouses and disabled) as of July 2025 was $1865.00/month.  Using that number, the average Social Security recipient will get a cost of living adjustment of $52.22/month, but their Medicare Part B premium will increase by $21.50/month, netting an increase of $30.72/month, for an actual COLA of 1.6%.  Even if inflation gets down to the FED (federal reserve board) target of 2% in 2026 (certainly not a given) it represents a lower standard of living for the average Social Security recipient over the past couple of years. 

Harry’s Monthly EView

LayLine Asset Management Inc

Harry J. Campbell III, CMT

10/7/25

Contents

Investment Thesis: A.I. Productivity

Investing for Retirement: Investments in A.I.

Retirement Topics: Medicare Signup Time

Market Musing: A.I. Oh My

Investment Thesis: The Communication Economy

Thesis Statement

The central claim is that Communication, and what develops from it, will be the primary force in the economy, driving growth, structure, diversity, and resiliency in the US economy for a very long time to come.

A.I. Productivity

            Large language models, commonly referred to as A.I. (artificial intelligence) is the primary driving force as we move into the early stages of the Communication Economy.  The economic promise of A.I. is, at its roots, about increasing economic productivity. Suffice it to say, if all the money and resources being poured into the develop of A.I. does not dramatically increase the productivity of the US economy, A.I. will not have lived up to the hype.

            The simplest way to think about productivity is in terms of economic inputs and outputs.  If a task used to take one unit of input to produce one widget of output and it now takes two units of input to produce that one widget of output we would consider the task to be less economically productive.  The preferred economic condition would be the same task taking one unit of input and producing two widgets of output, an increase in productivity, suggesting the economy is more efficient with its limited resources.

Productivity inputs are generally considered to be labor and capital.  Productivity outputs are generally considered to be goods and services.  On the labor front, A.I. can currently be looked at as primarily a time saving attribute.  For example, instead of taking hours for someone to summarize some data for management, A.I. can do it in minutes.  This frees up that someone to perform other tasks (input) for management it did not have time to do before, increasing the economic output (services) from the same economic unit of labor.  A.I. can also increase the output of goods for the same input of capital.  If it takes a specific amount of capital to produce one widget and by using A.I. to derived a more efficient operation that now produces two widgets of output, it would be considered as enhancing productivity. 

The social benefits of improved productivity generally revolve around improving overall standard of living.  If one unit of labor formally produced one widget, but now due to the increased efficiency of A.I., two widgets can be produced from that one unit of labor, the increased profits (lower labor cost/widget) from that second widget produced from the same unit of labor can be used to pay more income to the employee, increasing the standard of living for that employee.  Standard of living is a rather nebulous concept.  In addition to rising incomes, a rising standard of living often includes improvements in health, safety, education and other social aspects that are difficult to measure.  That said, current and future contributions to health and education from A.I. should increase the standard of living for the population as a whole.

The transition to the Communication Economy, led by A.I., is not going to be without considerable complications.  There have been many economic transitions in US history; for example agriculture to manufacturing and then manufacturing to computers.  When computers were first introduced to the office desktop, there was speculation that people would not be needed in the office anymore.  Over time we found out that we needed more people to operate and maintain the computers, even as computers improved the productivity of the office.  I doubt anyone would want to go back to the office setup of the 1980’s.  This is not to say that the transition was smooth or it didn’t disrupt the labor force, it did.  This transition to the Communication Economy will be similar.  Existing jobs will be lost or severely curtail just as new jobs, not even contemplated yet, will take their place.  The result will be more output of goods and services, from the same  relative level of inputs, labor and capital, resulting in improved productivity and a higher standard of living.

Investing for Retirement

Investments in A.I.

            When considering investments in A.I. one must consider this is the future we are talking about and needless to say, but I will, it is never easy or is success assured.  To state the obvious, the future is unknown.  Economic change tends to play out over a long periods of time, whereas we tend to conceptualize change over shorter periods of time.  Think Tesla, its IPO (initial public offering) was 15 years ago.  At that time the hype was about these fast, expensive, and quiet electric cars.  Little consideration was given to Tesla’s prospects for autonomous driving electric cars, robots, and satellites, and yet here we are.  A.I. will be no different.  Think of the transition from telephones to cell phones and ultimately to smartphones.  It took decades.  I remember my first cellphone in the early 1990s.  The smartphone (not even contemplated at the time) took a decade and half to come to fruition and another decade to become what we think of a smartphone today. Risking being taken as a fool, here are a few themes that A.I. will be integral in as we move into the future. 

Healthcare for All:  A.I. will allow doctors to be much more productive and better informed.  A.I. note taking will alleviate the need for doctors to spend their precious time writing patient notes, they will just review what A.I. wrote. A.I can quickly review all the research pertinent to a patient’s condition in minutes that would not be possible (not enough hours in the day) for a doctor to do, allowing for more time working with that patient.  Hospital will use A.I. to better schedule limited resources more effectively.  All of this and more will reduce the costs of providing basic healthcare leading to affordable healthcare for all.

General Purpose Robots: I don’t know about you, but I would love to have a robot mow the lawn and shovel the sidewalk and driveway.  There are many hobbies and activities that I would prefer to be doing with my time, just speaking for myself.

Delivery of Anything:  Back in the late 1990’s Amazon was just a bookstore that sent purchased books to consumers, no storefronts.  Now they deliver just about anything to anyone.  It was made possible by the growth and proliferation of the internet.  The internet is something we take for granted today, but back in the late 1990’s it was perceived as a threat to many.  The question is, what will A.I. deliver in the future.

Autonomous Driving:  Better large language models, that run A.I., are needed to advance autonomous driving to a level one would consider safe and economically accessible to most, and we are not there yet. Someday in the near future we will consider driving a car as a dangerous activity, done on a track for fun.  A lot of investment will be need to get us to that stage.

There are certainly (this is the future we are thinking about) many services and products that have not been thought of as of yet, similar to the late 20^th century.  They will need investments to bring them to commercial relevance.

Retirement Topic

Medicare Signup Time

            It’s that time of the year again.  Between 10/15/25 and 12/7/25 participates in Medicare have the opportunity to make changes in their Medicare coverage.  You can go to medicare.gov or call 1-800-633-4227 (1-800-Medicare) to get information about Medicare options and plans.  Medicare does send out a Medicare & You 2026 handbook, which you should have already received. Keep in mind that if you are enrolled in an Medicare Advantage plan on 1/1/2026 and decide that it’s not the best plan for your circumstances, there is a period between 1/1/2026 and 3/31/2026 you can switch to another Medicare health plan.  There are a few other situations that allow for change, check Medicare if you have questions.

            Medicare premium for Part B (Part A is usually free for most folks) is expected to rise from $185/month for 2025 to ~$206.50/month for 2026. Annual deductible for Part B is expected to rise from $257 to ~$288.  Medicare Advantage plan premiums (Part C) are also expected to rise, as are annual maximum out-of-pocket amounts.  I have noticed that many copayments have also risen.  Part D (drug coverage) has changed a bit, consult Medicare or your Advantage plan provider for details.

 Market Musing

A.I. Oh My

A.I. is in the job beholders eye,

Not much reason to ask why,

Job uncertainty is quite high.

Many job categories will simply go bye-bye,

Relegated to where old jobs go to die.

Sentimentally, it does make one cry.

Finding entry level jobs are hard, no lie!

Job styles are changing, but to clarify,

Better jobs are on the way, oh my.

HJC

Harry’s Monthly EView

LayLine Asset Management Inc

Harry J. Campbell III, CMT

9/2/25

Contents

Investment Thesis: Brief Comment

Investing for Retirement: Seasonals

Retirement Topics: Social Security COLA

Investment Thesis: The Communication Economy

Thesis Statement

The central claim is that Communication, and what develops from it, will be the primary force in the economy, driving growth, structure, diversity, and resiliency in the US economy for a very long time to come.

Brief Comment

I have to be brief today as I did not have Monday to start preparing for my Monthly EView and some client needs came up today.  Clients always take precedent.  But I didn’t want to leave you with a blank screen so here are my original observations presented in February 2023 for the Communication Economy and a short comment.

Millennials and Gen Z (Mill-Z) will shape everything:  The Mill-Z generation will reshape the economic and social structures in the US in ways not seen since baby boomers reshaped the US economy and social structure in the 70’s and 80’s.  We will still hold to many of our traditions and ways of interacting, but Mill-Z’s will take a different view and approach on most everything.  They will be faster adaptors to electric transport, quick to adjust to working from home or other satellite locations, and have a propensity for rapid uptake of technology.  Boomers rose out of the stagflation and inflation of the late 70’s and early 80’s and set a course for the economy that went well into the 2000’s, expect the Mill-Z generation to have even more wide-ranging effects.

Electrification of the Transportation Grid: The switch from an internal combustion driven transportation grid is, will be, one of the biggest changes in transportation in a century.  We will still get around like before, but with many more options.  From electric air taxis to driverless vehicles, electric propulsion will redefine how things are moved around, including us.  It also comes with the added benefit of reduced carbon emissions, something Mill-Zs are very big on and will propel this change forward with great enthusiasm.

Change in the Employee – Office – Business Culture Dynamic:  Change is difficult, especially when it happens literally in a blink of the eye.  The sudden move to working from home has forever altered the employer – employee relationship.  I’m going to go out on a limb here, but it is likely to be easier for Mill-Z employee to work from home then a baby boomer with 40 years of office experience.  Many will still say that the office is needed for maintaining or developing a business culture, and that might be true for some.  Mill-Zs on the other hand will be more open to developing other ways to create a business culture, perhaps better, more inclusive ones.

Acceptance of Technology in New Ways:  While I have no data to back this up, I would suggest that we are more flexible, mentally and physically, in our earlier years then later years.  Mill-Zs have already shown significant ability to adapt to new technologies.  Technology is key to increasing productivity (personal opinion), Mill-Zs are best positioned (more experienced) to successfully integrate the advantages of technology for the economy and society.

The dramatic increases we will see in economic productivity in the near future are due, in large part, to the current and future innovations in the methods by which humans and machines communication.  Large language models (LLM) can communicate vast amounts of usable data to most anywhere, anytime, supporting the Business Culture Dynamic changes.  Advanced technologies will enhance our conversations with our autonomous driving cars and general purpose machines.  Pocket translators are eliminating language barriers connecting anyone with anyone, anytime.  Unlike past transitions in the US economy that took decades to play out, this time the changes are coming fast and furious.

 Investing for Retirement

Seasonals

          You might of heard that September and early October are an annually difficult time of the year for investing, but rarely hear an explanation for that.  While there are plenty of market related issues unique to any given year, here are a couple that occur every year, commonly referred to as the “Seasonals”.

First, the end of September is the fiscal year end for most financial companies.  Most on Wall Street are on holiday for August and are just getting back to their desks now.  With the year end coming up in a matter of a couple of weeks there is a massive reassessment of all portfolios; their balance, allocations, and individual positions.  Besides the usual quarter end adjustments, the year end is a big one.  This is what clients, both current and prospective, will see as they access their portfolio managers investments.  Institutional portfolio managers tend to add to winners and sell losing positions during September to alter the way the portfolios will be viewed for the next year, also known as window dressing.  They can readjust positions in October if they need to.

The other seasonal that varies a little each year are the Jewish High Holy holidays, Rosh Hashanah (this year 9/22-9/24) and Yom Kippur (this year 10/1-10/2).  Many of the biggest and brightest money managers are Jewish and during the High Holy holidays they limit their activities related to their jobs.  Depending on many other factors, this seasonal time does effect the transactional action in the markets, both in the equity and the bond market.  There is an old Wall Street adage that goes, “Sell Rosh Hashanah and buy Yom Kippur” that highlights this seasonal effect.

           The combination of these two seasonal occurrences does increase the potential for dramatic market changes.

Retirement Topic

Social Security COLA

          Below are the cost of living adjustments (COLA) since the beginning of the financial crisis from the Social Security website.  The inflation numbers are from the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis website.

Keep in mind that the COLA is what is granted for the following year, i.e. 2024 COLA of 2.5% applied to Social Security benefits received in 2025.  The inflation rate is for the year, i.e. inflation in 2024 was 2.9%.  This means that Social Security benefits received in 2024 increased by 3.2% (2023 COLA granted for 2024), while for the whole of 2024 inflation was 2.9%.  In other words, the COLA received for 2024 of 3.2% fully compensated beneficiaries for the rise in inflation during 2024 of 2.9%.  We don’t know yet if the 2024 COLA of 2.5% was enough to cover the rise in inflation in 2025 as we don’t know the final inflation number as of yet.

Year    COLA             Inflation

2009    0.0%                0.4%

2010    0.0%                1.6%

2011    3.6%                3.2%

2012    1.7%                2.1%

2013    1.5%                1.5%

2014    1.7%                1.6%

2015    0.0%                0.1%

2016    0.3%                1.3%

2017    2.0%                2.1%

2018    2.8%                2.4%

2019    1.6%                1.8%

2020    1.3%                1.2%

2021    5.9%                4.7%

2022    8.7%                8.0%

2023    3.2%                4.1%

2024    2.5%                2.9%

Expected COLA to be granted in 2025 for 2026 is 2.7%.  We can only guess what inflation will actually be in 2026 and whether the 2025 COLA will cover it.

Copyrighted 2025, LayLine Asset Management Inc

CMT: Charter Market Technician