Today I got a 4% COLA. COLA stands for Cost of Living Adjustment. Not much but it is the little things that add up. The last few years have been great for the economy but not so great for government workers. It takes many years before wages catch up to government workers but when it does it is a big thing.

The reason why it is a big thing when it happens is not much due to the raise in hourly rate that it produces. That is great, but for me it is more about my final compensation rate, the rate at which my pension is calculated. Pennies on the hourly, but that will recalculate into $1,000s when my pension is calculated.

In fact I calculated my pension right now and I am looking at $2,000 a month. This was my goal when I first thought about getting a job with a pension.

Why $2,000? I figure that I can live most anywhere with $2,000 a month. I wont be driving lamborghinis or living in Beverly Hills, but I can make a pretty good living with that amount. Despite my personal obsession of securing money, having a lot has never really been my goal. To me it is just about security.

Having one stream of income is good but it is always good to build up multiple revenue streams. So I will continue to build up alternate revenue streams. In addition to my pension income I am building up my 457K account (made up of mostly ETFs and mutual funds), an active stock portfolio, a dividend stock portfolio, a crypto currency portfolio, and a side website design business. Hopefully all these different investments will become revenue streams unto themselves to help support me later when I decide to stop my current revenue stream, AKA my real job.