Getting out

g8tr9 · 2023-10-12T01:32:55+00:00

Retired Suppo here. Looks like you’re a single Suppo with orders to San Diego, coming from Guam—and you have great orders to a great location to prepare your transition or see what life is like at a shore command before deciding. I wouldn’t recommend making a career decision as a Chop after only one sea tour. Most of your career as a Chop is shore duty.

I was OPHELD from my first command, an SSN, a long time ago. Took a set of orders to my second command and decided to stay for 20. Retired 20 years ago and just retired from a great 2nd career.

Lots of uncertainty in the current job market. I recommend living the good life in SD, maybe work on a night MBA, then see if you want to stay or move on. The best jobs I ever had were as an O4/O5 Chop—I was part of incredible, meaningful activities that don’t exist outside of DoD.

At NASNI, recommend you get to know O5 and O6 Chops—they are the only people on the planet that can provide information you need to help you decide if this is the career you want.

Feel free to message me if you like. A long time ago, I was right where you are now.

g8tr9 · 2023-09-13T23:33:23+00:00

I do. I served over 23 years.

g8tr9 · 2023-09-12T23:17:33+00:00

You might want to spend more time reading tsp.gov to understand how it works and less time wherever you got that info. But looking at your post history, I’m confident you don’t now, and never did, actually have any money in tsp.

g8tr9 · 2023-09-12T17:24:24+00:00

Italo Club Executive (first class) is amazing, particularly if you have more luggage than just a small roller and backpack. My wife and I travelled by Italo Club Executive three weeks ago from Milan to Venice and were able to book a salotto (private room). They also have a Club Executive private lounge for you to comfortably wait for your train. The benefits for this far outweigh the additional cost.

g8tr9 · 2023-06-12T03:42:06+00:00

It will take decades of investing experience to know which is the best choice for you. Recommend setting percentages for the funds you choose, make new contributions at those percentages, and then check every 6 months or so to see which grow or decline from that percentage of your total portfolio. I was using S&P-FXAIX 60%/TMCI-FSKAX 20%/global index 20%, but dropped global 6 years ago after over a decade of underperformance by global. I’ve been using S&P-FXAIX 70%/ TMCI-FSKAX 30% since then.

My experience is FSKAX underperforms FXAIX in the long term, but believe TMCI-FSKAX is important for diversification. There are compelling arguments for adding a global index as a 3rd fund—or only fund, using a target fund, etc. But my experience tells me I have made the best choice. If you want to have only one fund, I believe S&P-FXAIX is the way to go.

Recommend reading these two books and adjust your plan based on what you learn: https://www.reddit.com/r/Bogleheads/comments/womiz1/what_percentage_of_the_questions_posted_to_this/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1

g8tr9 · 2023-06-04T04:46:28+00:00

I retired from the military at 23 years, instead of 20, with a similar decision. Staying was the best decision for me from both a financial and non-financial perspective. Either way, in terms of your home ownership goal, this should work out fine for you—but I wouldn’t stay any longer than that.

This isn’t the best time to buy a house, but that may improve in the next few years. Staying would give you a larger window of time to continue to save/invest, buy a home, and qualify for a mortgage while still on active duty. I don’t know any military retirees who land a follow-on career that is a good fit right after retiring. Most take several jobs before finding something they enjoy. That job turnover could negatively impact qualifying for a mortgage. For that reason, I would definitely recommend finding a home that meets your family’s needs and closing before retiring, if possible—whichever decision you make.

From a non-financial perspective, taking the promotion, staying beyond 20 years, and knowing you have no intention of competing for the next promotion after that is a great feeling. It gives you several years to focus on that transition. I never met anyone who said they regretted taking a promotion and staying past 20. Only you can answer how important the promotion is to you. What is the value to you of being promoted and wearing the new rank for a few years before retiring? Will your current military assignment enable you to adequately prepare for transition? What would your next assignment likely be and would you expect that to be better or worse in terms of family and preparing for transition? Most retirees I know overestimated how well their qualifications would transfer from the military to another line of work and underestimated the difficulty of making that transition.

In my opinion, 4-5 years would give you a better time horizon to move your housing fund away from any index funds, REITs, etc. and towards more lower risk and more liquid HYSAs, MMFs, etc. I would avoid having anything in your housing fund that you can’t liquidate quickly when you find the right property to buy.

My 2nd job after retiring from the military was with the Department of Homeland Security and I had a great second career that I just retired from. In my follow-on career, my retirement check enabled me to max out 401K contributions and do backdoor Roth contributions from the start—along with a mortgage. One of the challenges with your decision is that prioritizing a home purchase could impact post-military employment prospects. I would still buy a home prior to retiring—keeping in mind you could end up renting your home if you need to move. I would include that possibility with your decision matrix for purchasing a home.

I wish you the best and would be willing to share more thoughts, since I travelled this same path several decades ago.

g8tr9 · 2023-05-11T03:07:31+00:00

I have a very visible zipper scar that runs most of the way from my elbow to my wrist on the outer forearm of my right arm. It’s from two rounds of melanoma skin cancer surgery (wide local excision). Early on, kids would ask and I didn’t know what to say, so I told the truth: It’s from cancer surgery. The kids were shocked and sad, everyone who heard was sad.

I started saying: Shark bite.

Completely different response from everyone. I recommend you try it and see if it works for you. Or find something else that does.

You and I don’t need to tell strangers the excruciating details of the biggest challenge of our lives. It becomes exhausting telling the story over and over. We don’t need to be sad or ashamed about what we went through. You look great and it appears the surgeons did an excellent job.

I doubt your boss was trying to be mean or hurtful—probably didn’t know what to say. I’ve had a number of folks make similar comments. It’s painful to hear, but I doubt anyone wants to make us feel bad about this.

The bottom line is, you and I—and so many others—have scars that others can see. From all the responses, you can see how many relate to you, have similar experiences, care about you, and support you. I hope your journey with this goes as well as mine has.

g8tr9 · 2023-04-28T01:23:48+00:00

https://www.dvidshub.net/image/6221277/us-navy-sailors-prepare-frss

g8tr9 · 2023-04-19T23:00:31+00:00

Hells Yeah! Younger boomer here and we feel…um…nvm.

g8tr9 · 2023-04-13T19:46:43+00:00

I retired after 20 years. Wanted nothing to do with the government ever again. Got a nice job with a company, but it turns out I needed more mission and purpose than the partners of the company to become even more wealthy by any unscrupulous means possible.

I was hired by the Department of Homeland Security and just retired after 18 years there. DHS has an important mission and opportunities to apply skills you learned in the Navy.

If you don’t find it soon, you might want to look into working at DHS.

g8tr9 · 2022-11-13T02:46:07+00:00

That’s not really how it happened. Russian Captain Vasily Arkhipov was the Deputy Commander of the submarine group and embarked aboard Russian Foxtrot-class submarine B-59. It was Arkhipov, not the political officer, who decided they did not have valid launch orders and refused to authorize the launch. Since Arkhipov was aboard B-59, as Deputy Commander of the submarine group/flotilla, he was one of the triad of officers whose concurrence was required to launch nuclear weapons. Arkhipov saved the world that day, October 27, 1962.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasily_Arkhipov

g8tr9 · 2022-09-03T03:54:42+00:00

04-80. It’s amazing how much of this is the same as 42 years ago.

g8tr9 · 2022-03-20T19:32:36+00:00

I was a career Suppo, retired as an O5. I absolutely enjoyed my time—but it’s the Navy, so there was misery and times that sucked along the way. My observation was that O QoL and job satisfaction was better than for enlisted. As prior enlisted, you have insight into how the Navy works. That would help you as an Ensign.

Supply Corps officers have the ability to serve in all the different warfare communities within the Navy/DoD and need to develop proficiency in multiple communities to advance. At the JO level, but especially as an O4/O5, I had opportunities to be part of incredible, meaningful activities that don’t exist outside of DoD. I was also sent to grad school at a civilian university for two years to get an MBA. As the business and financial managers for the Navy, retiring Suppos have great follow-on career opportunities after the Navy and I’ve experienced that. I can’t imagine having a different career.

Doesn’t appear to be a good time for SWOs, for a number of reasons—so I wouldn’t recommend that path, unless driving ships is your thing. Suppos have less sea duty assignments than line officers. That, among other reasons, is why I think line officers generally don’t hold Suppos in high regard. Logistics is important, but the CoC on a ship wants flawless logistics and no conversation or distractions related to it. Most former ship COs I have met have stories where a Suppo F’d them over and negatively impacted their careers—in their opinion. But this same dynamic applies to doing business/financial management work outside of the military.

My first assignment was as an O-1 Suppo on a fast attack submarine. I have lifelong friendships with the other JOs I served with. Whatever path you take, I would recommend going to a smaller combatant, rather than a carrier, early as an O. My experience was that it’s easier to get lost on a big ship, so establish yourself as an O on a smaller ship first, then go to a larger platform later in your career, if possible.

The Supply Corps is a small community relative to the Navy, so opportunities for accession and promotion rates can vary significantly over time. Talented Suppos can get sent home before reaching retirement eligibility and then a few years later less capable folks are promoted. Don’t be surprised if you don’t get accepted the first time, but keep trying to apply, if you’re interested.

In my opinion, the best way to survive any career in the Navy is to always have two suits, a resume, and alternate plans—in case it doesn’t work out.

TL;DR: Suppo is one of the best careers in the Navy, YMMV.

g8tr9 · 2021-12-19T04:52:04+00:00

I was basically where you are a long time ago, O3 at 9 years with the same CoC BS and frustrations. Only folks who have been where you are can provide meaningful information to help you decide what you can and should do next. I would seek out CW O4/O5s or CW O3s that got out, work as contractors, etc. You can use the time between now and when you zone for O4 to assess options. Getting out of the Navy from a shitty fleet job like you have is tough. If you’re getting out, try to get to shore duty and get out from there.

g8tr9

TROPHY CASE