What is a fixed income?

Its not what you have been trained to think.

Who Really Lives on a Fixed Income?
Mark A. Pribonic

After months of higher fuel and food prices, I would have expected the outcry to happen sooner than the past week. Usually screams of despair about the cost of living come from special-interest groups representing the aged or the poor. But the siren came this time from my 88-year-old father-in-law. When the topic of the economy surfaced during a recent conversation, my wife's father groused how his retirement checks, which include a company pension and Social Security, do not buy what they did just a few months ago. His sentiment echoed those that have been heard repeatedly over the years from the self-appointed spokesman for the elderly. General price rises impose a harsh penalty on those who live on a fixed income. In an almost instantaneous response, my wife shot back that all of us live on a fixed income.

I thought immediately that she was right — but then again, maybe not. As with many falsehoods, the untrue becomes fact when repeated often enough....Whole article