> Now all your expenses are 6% lower, but your money left after expenses is also 6% lower. If so, arguably the COL is being done incorrectly. It should be adj

> Now all your expenses are 6% lower, but your money left after expenses is also 6% lower. If so, arguably the COL is being done incorrectly. It should be adjusting just literally the "costs of living", not total comp. That said, having lived in a very high COL area and a normal area, my total take was higher in the former, but the risk/variance was also higher--a lot higher. It could easily have bankrupted me. Thinking in risk/reward terms (or like a market investor), I'd actually prefer the lower variance at this point in my life, even if the mean is also lower.