Local inflation levels are hanging over clients, and the November elections, like a giant bag of unsorted change.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, or CPI-U, rose "only" 2.9%, year over year, in July, but, for a worker who retires at age 65 today and lives 30 years, even that inflation rate could cause the price of a $5 cup of tea to rise to about $12.
Inflation can also create a vicious cycle, with overall inflation pushing up the price of health care, and the price of health care pushing up the inflation.
It can also put people, including workers and voters, in a bad mood, and it's considerably worse in some places than in others.
In the metropolitan areas where the BLS tracks local inflation levels, CPI-U has ranged from 1.9% this year, in the Denver area, up to 4.5%.
For a look at the 10 metro areas with the worst CPI-U figures this year, based on the BLS data, see the gallery above. (Note: There are a number of ties.)
Related: Saving on shaky ground: Helping employees navigate retirement planning during inflation
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Allison Bell
Allison Bell, a senior reporter at ThinkAdvisor and BenefitsPRO, previously was an associate editor at National Underwriter Life & Health. She has a bachelor's degree in economics from Washington University in St. Louis and a master's degree in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. She can be reached through X at @Think_Allison.
