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I am in a similar predicament, only I am in the National Guard. I served six years active duty and have been a reservist for the last seven years. People always point out to me that I need to stick it out until retirement because I am only doing one weekend a month, two weeks a year duty, but the thing is that I hate it. I cannot take classes or participate in actitivities that require regular attendance because my drill weekend always comes up, not a huge issue, but annoying. My biggest issue is that I need to do command-time in order to get promoted and I do not want to do it simply because I haven't met one commander yet who says that it is truly a week-end job. I have so many other things and interests that I am pursuing in my life that I literally don't have any time to dedicate to duty other than the one-weekend a month, two weeks a year. I don't have time to come home after working a civilian job all day and spend another two - three hours responding to emails, making phone calls, creating reports, etc during the week and honestly my personal interests are more important to me than my military career right now. I have been told that my career is "dead-in-the-water" if I do not take on a more visible role. All this makes me feel out-of-place when I go to drill because I cannot bring myself to brown-nose, take people to lunch, or sit around talking about things that I do not care about. I guess it would be easier to play the game, if I enjoyed it and if I could bring myself to make my part-time career a priority. As it is, I focus on advancement as a Civilian since that is my bread and butter and I enjoy my job. I am so torn on what to do. I know that in a few years, I may have more time to focus on my military career but I feel like I am at a point where I need to make a decision now because people are questioning why I am declining opportunities and it is making me look like a bad Soldier. I just want to like going to drill and quite frankly I do not. I don't work with a bad group of people and no one is giving me a hard time, but it is hard to pretend to be someone that I am not even if it is just for one weekend a month. Maybe if everyone I worked with were not hard, Type A personalities or at least pretending to be, I would not feel so out of place. I've literally had people laugh and tell me I am one of those "looney types" because I told the group I was missing drill to attend a class to get my certification in Reiki Healing. I'm just wondering if that little pension I will get when I am 62 is worth it? On paper, it doesn't seem to be.
I am in a similar predicament, only I am in the National Guard. I served six years active duty and have been a reservist for the last seven years. People always point out to me that I need to stick it out until retirement because I am only doing one weekend a month, two weeks a year duty, but the thing is that I hate it. I cannot take classes or participate in actitivities that require regular attendance because my drill weekend always comes up, not a huge issue, but annoying. My biggest issue is that I need to do command-time in order to get promoted and I do not want to do it simply because I haven't met one commander yet who says that it is truly a week-end job. I have so many other things and interests that I am pursuing in my life that I literally don't have any time to dedicate to duty other than the one-weekend a month, two weeks a year. I don't have time to come home after working a civilian job all day and spend another two - three hours responding to emails, making phone calls, creating reports, etc during the week and honestly my personal interests are more important to me than my military career right now. I have been told that my career is "dead-in-the-water" if I do not take on a more visible role. All this makes me feel out-of-place when I go to drill because I cannot bring myself to brown-nose, take people to lunch, or sit around talking about things that I do not care about. I guess it would be easier to play the game, if I enjoyed it and if I could bring myself to make my part-time career a priority. As it is, I focus on advancement as a Civilian since that is my bread and butter and I enjoy my job. I am so torn on what to do. I know that in a few years, I may have more time to focus on my military career but I feel like I am at a point where I need to make a decision now because people are questioning why I am declining opportunities and it is making me look like a bad Soldier. I just want to like going to drill and quite frankly I do not. I don't work with a bad group of people and no one is giving me a hard time, but it is hard to pretend to be someone that I am not even if it is just for one weekend a month. Maybe if everyone I worked with were not hard, Type A personalities or at least pretending to be, I would not feel so out of place. I've literally had people laugh and tell me I am one of those "looney types" because I told the group I was missing drill to attend a class to get my certification in Reiki Healing. I'm just wondering if that little pension I will get when I am 62 is worth it? On paper, it doesn't seem to be.
The pension is actually pretty decent for the reserves. It'd take quite a bit of savings to get the equivalent.
It's your choice, but I'd stick out 7 years of weekends.
After 9 I went Guard, just cuz I couldn't get back in the Corps. (downsizing) Think long and hard and please do consider doing your one weekend a month. Those years will zip by and you'll have a pretty decent addition to your income at 60.
I am activd duty E7 with 13 years and have 18 months of contract time. I am seriously considering going reserves and getting a federal job. I have a Bachelors degree in Security Management. I havent spoken to my peers yet of my intentions because of the knee jerk reactions i woukd recieve and also its a good rule of thumb to never show your hand until the time.is right. Anyway, my issues with military life are the constant deployments and the time it takes from my family. Also, the workload increases every year due to requirements from higher ups. Retirement at 20 Years aside, I ask myself everyday why should I continue in a career that is burdensome to my family if the end result is a 20 year retirement. I can still retire from a federal job, the reserves and/or a civilian company with medical benefits. I ask myself why do I stay active if I am unhappy. The point I am making is that if you plan ahead, network with companys like Lucas group which find veterans employment, and/or go reserves there is nothing wrong with that.
I am activd duty E7 with 13 years and have 18 months of contract time. I am seriously considering going reserves and getting a federal job. I have a Bachelors degree in Security Management. I havent spoken to my peers yet of my intentions because of the knee jerk reactions i woukd recieve and also its a good rule of thumb to never show your hand until the time.is right. Anyway, my issues with military life are the constant deployments and the time it takes from my family. Also, the workload increases every year due to requirements from higher ups. Retirement at 20 Years aside, I ask myself everyday why should I continue in a career that is burdensome to my family if the end result is a 20 year retirement. I can still retire from a federal job, the reserves and/or a civilian company with medical benefits. I ask myself why do I stay active if I am unhappy. The point I am making is that if you plan ahead, network with companys like Lucas group which find veterans employment, and/or go reserves there is nothing wrong with that.
That is a tough call.
Your contract will be up when you have 15 years of Active Duty time in. 3/4 of the way to a pension.
At least you have the B.S. degree
The deployments are hard; much harder as your children are growing up. I know.
I stayed in for the pension. We moved to a region where the pension is enough to support a family.
Your 30 and its a good time to think about moving on to use both your military experience and GI bill. Best to complete before 35 and good time to start a second career. I actually worked with quite a few who did just what your doing .They also went to finish retirement in reserves. A lot of public and government career jobs looking for your degree plus service record. I don't see your flipping burger at all. Many of those government positions give you a advantage because they want the things who have learned thru military. Most said the hardest part was taking over full responsibility when your use to military making so many decisions for you. Right time to put in added 20 years to your retirement while settling in to civilian life. Good luck.
Your 30 and its a good time to think about moving on to use both your military experience and GI bill.
Another 4 years of college, on top of his "Bachelors degree in Security Management" ?
Quote:
... Best to complete before 35 and good time to start a second career. I actually worked with quite a few who did just what your doing .They also went to finish retirement in reserves. A lot of public and government career jobs looking for your degree plus service record. I don't see your flipping burger at all. Many of those government positions give you a advantage because they want the things who have learned thru military. Most said the hardest part was taking over full responsibility when your use to military making so many decisions for you. Right time to put in added 20 years to your retirement while settling in to civilian life. Good luck.
On one hand, after this enlistment he will be 5 years away from retirement.
On the other hand, assuming he shifts to reserves and starts a second career, he will be another 25+ years away from retirement.
I am activd duty E7 with 13 years and have 18 months of contract time. I am seriously considering going reserves and getting a federal job. I have a Bachelors degree in Security Management. I havent spoken to my peers yet of my intentions because of the knee jerk reactions i woukd recieve and also its a good rule of thumb to never show your hand until the time.is right. Anyway, my issues with military life are the constant deployments and the time it takes from my family. Also, the workload increases every year due to requirements from higher ups. Retirement at 20 Years aside, I ask myself everyday why should I continue in a career that is burdensome to my family if the end result is a 20 year retirement. I can still retire from a federal job, the reserves and/or a civilian company with medical benefits. I ask myself why do I stay active if I am unhappy. The point I am making is that if you plan ahead, network with companys like Lucas group which find veterans employment, and/or go reserves there is nothing wrong with that.
I wouldn't do it. The federal government is very difficult to get a job offer from right now. A lot of commands are downsizing. And coming in at a higher grade (GS11+) doesn't really happen anymore. I'd suck up the extra 5 years and then look.
I think that most of us hit that point in the career where you had to make the decision to stay or go.
I chose to stay.
Retired after 24 1/2 years active duty then went right back to work as a government consultant. After 12 years of consulting while working for two of the major DoD consulting companies, I retired from that with a nice amount of money in my 401Ks.
I retired from professional life at age 53 (three years ago).
Since then, I've been helping my wife operate her small business and improved our profitability by over 40 percent.
Since I have my military pension, we've decided to semi-retire in the next three years, when my 401K distributions become available. After that, at age 62-ish, we'll apply for SS distributions (not on disability of any type).
Mil Retirement
401K
SS bennies
Income from part-time business operations
We think that should give us a very nice retirement income.
The only way to make this happen is to give yourself a good basis to build on. In my opinion, a military pension does that.
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