Cost of Living, a Fickle Formula

Nationwide, there are about 1.94 million military retirees, with 189,168 in the District, Virginia and Maryland.

State Department officials said computations were not available on COLAs for the Foreign Service but estimated that monthly payments to about 6,100 retired officers and surviving spouses in the Washington area would average $4,384 next year. Nationwide, there are 14,328 retired Foreign Service officers.

Many federal retirees continue to work after leaving the government, and some move from the Washington area in a bid to stretch their retirement income.

Virginia A. Broadbent moved to Orange, Va., from Alexandria after retiring from the Agriculture Department in 1994. "Quite clearly I could obtain a better house at a lower price here at the time I bought," she said. "I would be living in a hovel if I was living in the D.C. area."

But she is worried that property tax rates in Orange will increase this year, cutting into her CSRS pension. "I have become more cautious and concerned about money. I would love to see a COLA that kept pace with the cost of living in a more realistic sense," she said.

Broadbent said a COLA of "4 to 5 percent would seem nicer to me" and noted that she is thinking of returning to work on a part-time basis.

Kleeman never stopped working. Her government career included about 20 years at the Government Accountability Office, a congressional agency, and she left federal service in 1994 to join George Washington University as a distinguished executive in residence, teaching and helping students plan their careers.

While in government, she was covered by CSRS and FERS, which gives her a mixed COLA. Her retirement benefits are "certainly generous," she said, but noted that many federal employees will need to invest wisely in the Thrift Savings Plan, their 401(k)-type program, to achieve a comfortable retirement.

"I don't think I will get rich on the 3.3," she quipped, adding, on a more somber note, that "very few people now in government service are going to be able to leave a large inheritance."

Stephen Barr's e-mail address isbarrs@washpost.com.