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The TSP is an incredible benefit of federal service. With an expense ratio of .027%, it is probably the best 401k plan available. Every service person should max out if possible to the IRS annual limit. This will be more difficult for enlisted, but officers have no excuse not to.
You are completely right except in one area. Yes it will be more difficult for enlisted but only if senior enlisted do not keep on their young soldiers. I for one talk to my junior soldiers every chance I get. I talk to them about their plans for the future. I ask them if they are making deposits. In our system though we are only reservists so the money they can put into TSP is so small that it almost makes no sense but that is not entirely the case either. It can be a great start for a decent portfolio.
High tech jobs where a lot of poaching is done, are jobs that offer better SRB [Selective Re-enlistment Bonus] levels.
In my rate, every 4 years at re-enlistment time I was offered a package of various options. E4s or E5s are offered a one pay-grade advancement to re-up, it was called STAR.
Being junior is also a lower CREO grouping so SRB offerings are lower. The longer you stay in, and the more NECs you have then the higher grouping you fall into, which gives you more cash in your bonus.
After 10-years my SRB peaked at $65k. Each re-enlistment for 4 years included a bonus check for $65k. When I retired in '01 the SRB cap changed to $90k.
In the Navy, each rate encompasses a group of specialties called NECs. In the Army they are MOSs. My C school got me one NEC. Then with each re-enlistment I got to choose another NEC. So with each sailor you kind of expect, first enlistment will have one NEC. Two enlistments they should have two NECs. Three enlistments : three NECs. etc.
It is these programs [STAR and SRB] along with the 20-year pension that lure guys to stay. Against poachers and whatever they are offering.
I got offers from Rockwell, Sperry-Autonetics, and one shipyard overseas.
Nucs get offers from every power company in the nation.
I have a buddy [nuc] who is now working for a company in China setting up nuc plants. [real good money]
So wait, you're saying $65k tempted you to walk away from a pension and health benefits worth well over a million dollars? I'm not seeing your math. Glad you didn't do it.
As far as your friend building nuc reactors for the Chinese, well, the irony is overwhelming.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Submariner
High tech jobs where a lot of poaching is done, are jobs that offer better SRB [Selective Re-enlistment Bonus] levels.
In my rate, every 4 years at re-enlistment time I was offered a package of various options. E4s or E5s are offered a one pay-grade advancement to re-up, it was called STAR.
Being junior is also a lower CREO grouping so SRB offerings are lower. The longer you stay in, and the more NECs you have then the higher grouping you fall into, which gives you more cash in your bonus.
After 10-years my SRB peaked at $65k. Each re-enlistment for 4 years included a bonus check for $65k. When I retired in '01 the SRB cap changed to $90k.
In the Navy, each rate encompasses a group of specialties called NECs. In the Army they are MOSs. My C school got me one NEC. Then with each re-enlistment I got to choose another NEC. So with each sailor you kind of expect, first enlistment will have one NEC. Two enlistments they should have two NECs. Three enlistments : three NECs. etc.
It is these programs [STAR and SRB] along with the 20-year pension that lure guys to stay. Against poachers and whatever they are offering.
I got offers from Rockwell, Sperry-Autonetics, and one shipyard overseas.
Nucs get offers from every power company in the nation.
I have a buddy [nuc] who is now working for a company in China setting up nuc plants. [real good money]
So wait, you're saying $65k tempted you to walk away from a pension and health benefits worth well over a million dollars? I'm not seeing your math. Glad you didn't do it.
The Navy was paying me $60 to $65k each year tax-free. Then I was also getting my SRB every four years. And this career offered me a 20-year pension with health coverage.
This is what the military offers to keep folks 'in'.
If I had left the Navy, I would have forfeited that in exchange for the jobs that were on the outside.
The Navy was paying me $60 to $65k each year tax-free. Then I was also getting my SRB every four years. And this career offered me a 20-year pension with health coverage.
This is what the military offers to keep folks 'in'.
If I had left the Navy, I would have forfeited that in exchange for the jobs that were on the outside.
And who knows where that would have led. All in all you did well. I have a couple of friends of mine who where the dolphins. One I keep teasing him as he was a missle tech I used to say this about him (always in his pressence) that he was an in-flight missle technician. It usually gets a chuckle as we all can picture Slim Pickens .
And who knows where that would have led. All in all you did well. I have a couple of friends of mine who where the dolphins. One I keep teasing him as he was a missle tech I used to say this about him (always in his pressence) that he was an in-flight missle technician. It usually gets a chuckle as we all can picture Slim Pickens .
MTs are fantastic. The stuff they can do with a satellite in orbit is amazing. People dont understand all the things that those deals can do before they decide to begin dropping payloads; and the accuracy is just incredible.
I have been involved in two ripple-launches, it puts a lot of stress on the boat.
“The military (active duty) retirement system is arguably the best retirement deal around. Unlike most retirement plans, the Armed Forces offer a pension (technically a “reduced compensation for reduced services) with benefits that start the day you retire, no matter how old you are,” according to Military.com.
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I sure as hell wouldn't have stuck around for 20+ years had the retirement not been there. I'd have been gone after my initial 3 yr enlistment.
I get a kick out of this. My pension is $700 a month and I don't even get to collect that since it is totally offset by my VA Compensation
Boompa, that's something I've always thought was wrong. Congress should eliminate the offset for ALL retirees. I just don't get this mentality that military members who get both disability and retirement or that return to some other government job after they retire from the military and EARN a second pension are "double dippers". I HATE the term and see it as only something that opportunist politicians and the profit-hungry media use for self-serving purposes...
I get a kick out of this. My pension is $700 a month and I don't even get to collect that since it is totally offset by my VA Compensation
Possibly by your own choice.
Pension is taxable. Disability pay is not.
So would you rather have $700 and pay tax on it, or $700 tax free?
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