You'll often hear that it's important to save and invest money for retirement. The reason? Without a good-sized nest egg, you might really struggle financially once you no longer have a regular paycheck coming in.

Just take a look at what's happened over the past year and a half. Inflation in the U.S. surged to a peak last seen four decades ago. And that's forced a lot of people, seniors included, to make cutbacks, rack up debt, or both.

In fact, Social Security recipients got a 5.9% cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) to start off 2022 based on the inflation that was already running hot in 2021. But 2022's inflation well outpaced that increase, leaving seniors who are heavily reliant on Social Security with a serious loss of buying power. And while the COLA coming in January will be even larger than the last one, retirees' budgets will likely still be feeling the pinch in 2023.

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Source Fool.com