As I sat down to write this story for you it dawned on me that it has been at least several years since I actually placed a stamp on an envelope and then placed that envelope in the mailbox to be picked up by the postal service. What was once a regular daily occurrence in my life has given way to electronic commerce I guess.

It's obvious mailing letters, bills, payments, and other correspondences don't happen with the same frequency they once did but, still, people need the post office and of course, the post office needs to get paid. One of the ways we pay the post office is through the purchase of stamps.

That's why the price of a "Forever Stamp" from the United States Postal Service is going up. The stamps currently available for.50 cents each will cost you.55cents as of January 27th. It's the largest percentage increase in postage stamps the USPS has enacted since 1991.

The postal rate increase won't just affect letters. There will be increases in priority mail and package delivery rates as well. When you consider the USPS lost $3.9 billion, yes with a "b", last year you can see why the agency is requesting the increase.

The agency has recently come under fire from President Trump for not charging retailers such as Amazon enough to make up for the shortfall in revenue.

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