#955 Forever stamps is a great way to combat inflation because…

Seems like a lot of people are talking about inflation and how the prices for things keep going up. You hear it too right? People constantly complaining about gas prices or airline fares. Gasoline has gone up 158% in the past decade and coffee is up 90% in the same time frame. Wine is up 60% and margarine up 143%. In the last decade stamps have gone from $.37 to $.49.

Let’s think about this for a second- for 49 cents, less than half a dollar, you can mail a one ounce letter all the way across the United States? Yet every time the price for stamps goes up everyone is up in arms. “Why are stamps so expensive?” they cry.

Check this out: According to a chart on the United States Postal Service website rates for stamps have indeed steadily risen.
Here are the prices for stamps for domestic letters since 1885:

July 1, 1885 2 cents
November 2, 1917 3 cents
July 1, 1919 2 cents
July 6, 1932 3 cents
August 1, 1958 4 cents
January 7, 1963 5 cents
January 7, 1968 6 cents
May 16, 1971 8 cents
March 2, 1974 10 cents
December 31, 1975 13 cents
May 29, 1978 15 cents
March 22, 1981 18 cents
November 1, 1981 20 cents
February 17, 1985 22 cents
April 3, 1988 25 cents
February 3, 1991 29 cents
January 1, 1995 32 cents
January 10, 1999 33 cents
January 7, 2001 34 cents
June 30, 2002 37 cents
January 8, 2006 39 cents
May 14, 2007 41 cents
May 12, 2008 42 cents
May 11, 2009 44 cents
January 22, 2012 45 cents
January 27, 2013 46 cents
January 26, 2014 49 cents

Yes indeed. The price of stamps keeps going up. The thing that jumps out there for me is that rates for stamps only dropped once back in 1919.

Do I care? No. I keep on smiling. Why? Because I buy Forever Stamps.

What?

Let me explain. Forever Stamps were created by the United States Postal Service (USPS) in 2007. They are non-denominational First Class postage meaning they can be used to mail First Class letters no matter what the postal rate. What makes them special is you can buy them at the current first-class postage stamps rate and they remain valid even if that rate rises in the future.

If you assume, like I do, the price for stamps will always rise then Forever Stamps are a good investment. (I know it is trivial, a couple cents here and there and really, we should be trying our best to go green and pay our bills online and all that stuff but sometimes things just have to be mailed right?)

Just like ‘regular’ stamps Forever Stamps can be purchased from the United States Postal Service at your local post office, online, or by telephone. It is a no brainer to me and keeps me smiling.

I wonder if they have this sort of thing in other countries? I would love to hear in the comments from my readers outside the U.S.