New Inflation Index for Retirees Shows Seniors Hit Hard: The Rappaport Retirement...

New Inflation Index for Retirees Shows Seniors Hit Hard: The Rappaport Retirement Index (RRI) for Year-Over-Year 2007 Increased to 4.31 Percent

Retired Seniors Getting Squeezed as Social Security Increases
Payments Only 2.3% for 2008
RADNOR, Pa.--(Business Wire)--
Seniors hit hard as U.S. consumer prices soared at their fastest
rate in almost two decades last year as higher energy, food and
medical bills took a toll on seniors whose income levels failed to
keep pace. Monthly social security payments and supplemental security
income benefits for more than 54 million Americans will increase 2.3%
in 2008, far below the real inflation rate.

This new inflation index for retirees replaces the CPI-U (Urban)
as the main inflation gage for better financial planning. Retirement
Specialist and Accredited Wealth Management Advisor H Craig Rappaport,
using statistical data and guidance provided by the Bureau of Labor
and Statistics, releases the Rappaport Retirement Index
(http://www.livelongliverich.com/retirement.html).

For several decades, the baby boom generation has been preparing
for retirement. The Rappaport Retirement Index is the first inflation
index for financial planners, retirees and soon-to-be retirees needing
to know how to plan and invest to create and accurately calculate
their retirement income needs.

The Department of Labor has gathered inflation data for the
elderly and calculated an inflation index for this group for over 20
years but does not release the results. It is called the Consumer
Price Index for the Elderly. It is, along with the CPI, not forward
looking and therefore inherently flawed for planning purposes. The
Rappaport Retirement Index uses the CPI-E (Elderly) data to calculate
a forward looking and useful index for real people doing real planning
and having to live with the consequences of their actions.

H Craig Rappaport, the author of Live Long Live Rich
(http://www.livelongliverich.com/index.html)-Creating Your Retirement
Paycheck, created the RRI to help set standards within the planning
process.

Specializing in retirement, Rappaport has appeared in the Wall
Street Journal, Fox News, CNN Headline News, The Dow Jones News
Service as well as many television shows, magazines, newspapers and
can be heard on the radio daily.

For the latest index reading visit: Rappaport Retirement Index
(http://www.livelongliverich.com/retirement.html)

Live Long Live Rich
Craig Rappaport, 610-254-1110
Email: Rappaport@livelongliverich.com
Website: http://www.livelongliverich.com/index.html

Copyright Business Wire 2008