Many seniors inevitably wind up in a position where they're forced to largely live on Social Security. That's not ideal, though, because those benefits will only replace about 40% of an average earner's pre-retirement wages. And seniors commonly need a lot more income than that to live comfortably.

But still, that doesn't change the fact that many retirees today are extremely reliant on Social Security. And as such, they're reliant on generous cost-of-living adjustments, or COLAs, so that their benefits get enough of a boost each year to keep pace with inflation.

In 2023, Social Security recipients received a whopping 8.7% COLA -- the largest to arrive in decades -- in response to the rampant inflation that battered consumers in 2022. This year's COLA was notably smaller at 3.2%, but significant nonetheless.

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Source Fool.com