Dear Rusty: I started collecting SS when I turned 70 to maximize my income. One factor that is never mentioned is that the annual cost of living increase appears to be based on the previous year’s payment. I’ve talked to others who are about my age (77) and we talked about how much of an adder we will receive. Those who collected earlier always get much less than I do. So, it appears that the annual increase is based on previous year’s payment and not on the original payment from when I started collecting, so it has a compounding impact. Frequently the increase received by those who collected early covers the Medicare increase plus a small adder, whereas I have been getting a much larger increase. Can you comment? Signed: Wondering