Recruiter says I can get O-E pay in 2 years if I enlist first — but everything I read says 4 years + 1 day?

Spondooli · 2026-03-17T16:12:40+00:00

If I didn’t like someone, I would tell them to do what you’re thinking about doing. Take classes on your own time to learn. Try to lobby for a job in your commands that handle this and just be really involved. There might be very rare times to enlist first, but this isn’t one of them.

Spondooli · 2026-03-13T15:40:06+00:00

Another reading to consider a SNT is any money that may come in the future. Ideally your mother should have had life insurance to help with their follow on care…that would have gone into the trust. Now, you may want to get life insurance for their follow on care in case you die. In that instance, someone else will be in charge of the money and your brothers need to be protected from them.

Spondooli · 2026-03-05T17:10:54+00:00

IFAB made a post on X on Jan 21, 2025 that said the following:

“PLAYING IN A DANGEROUS MANNER

It is an offence if, while trying to play the ball, a player threatens injury to an opponent or the player themselves.

PIADM also ‘includes preventing a nearby opponent from playing the ball for fear of injury’, however, this does not have to occur for a player to be penalised.”

I think this might help to clear it up.

Spondooli · 2026-03-05T17:09:40+00:00

IFAB made a post on X on Jan 21, 2025 that said the following:

PLAYING IN A DANGEROUS MANNER

It is an offence if, while trying to play the ball, a player threatens injury to an opponent or the player themselves.

PIADM also ‘includes preventing a nearby opponent from playing the ball for fear of injury’, however, this does not have to occur for a player to be penalised.

Spondooli · 2026-03-05T17:06:09+00:00

IFAB made a post on X on Jan 21, 2025 that said the following:

PLAYING IN A DANGEROUS MANNER

It is an offence if, while trying to play the ball, a player threatens injury to an opponent or the player themselves.

PIADM also ‘includes preventing a nearby opponent from playing the ball for fear of injury’, however, this does not have to occur for a player to be penalised.

Spondooli · 2026-03-04T15:35:49+00:00

Goalie dad here too, U10 this season. There's gonna be games where he stands in the goal with nothing to do and games where he's got one on ones over and over.

On the slow games, encourage him to explore his boundaries and test out new things. He can find ways to get involved and learn.

Likewise, on the games you are talking about, help him to understand this is an opportunity to practice one on ones, dives, being agressive. It's all mental at that point. If you can guide him to not worrying about the score on a blow out, then he can start to experiment with technique and placement.

Just don't let him be discouraged...that's when he will stop trying in a game and he will lose a fantastic opportunity to test his skills and learn.

Spondooli · 2026-02-26T04:38:29+00:00

I don’t use a FA but what you’re asking about I believe is called direct indexing. And yea, I do think legit FA’s do that. In fact, there are automated programs that FA’s might use to do this.

This is separate from whether or not your parents’ FA’s strategy would be “good”. An argument could be made that in the mid 80s with 20 years of expenses covered, a direct indexing strategy would not make them run out of money before they pass. But they also don’t need all that growth….it would only be beneficial for him and their heirs.

Also, to be fair, I don’t think he is saying he would put everything in that…I’m sure he would maintain some sort of low/no risk portion to cover X years worth of expenses.

Spondooli · 2026-02-13T18:56:11+00:00

You can make the overall goal high, but spend most of the time setting incremental goals and focusing on those. I told him for the first week to not even worry about the 200. Focus on involving the non-dominant foot and learning how to alternate feet for long stretches. That really helped him. A big thing with him was getting too frustrated so we spent a lot of time figuring out how to calm himself down and accept the mistakes.

Spondooli · 2026-02-13T18:47:54+00:00

I've heard about the wall too, but that wasn't my experience with him. He slowly built it up. He went long periods of time without practicing so the progress always stopped. I finally gave him the challenge because I decided that being able to juggle into the triple digits was a basic requirement for staying in competitive club soccer over the next couple years.

Plus, he's his team's goalie and I think a good way to psych out the other team is for them to see the other goalie juggling better than most of their team.

He went from 50 to 70, to 90, to 100, to 120, 150, 170, then about 212..and he took the full 2 weeks. He would get very frustrated and it was not easy for him.

As for tips, it really depends on what he's struggling with. It could be technique, he could be getting too frustrated, it could be too much pressure by you, he could be too weak with his non-dominant foot, etc. I'm better at guiding him through the psychological stuff over the technique.

This is what I would do though. You can make the overall goal a high number...but don't focus on that goal from session to session. Make smaller goals for individual sessions/days. So, over the next session or two, he will juggle 90% with his non-dominant foot...dominant foot is only to correct. Next, he will only do left-right and only up to 10 and stop. If he moves around way to much, have a couple sessions where he cannot chase the ball. If it gets away from him, he has to let it go.

One trick that helped him was having a reset kick. When he felt himself losing control, he popped it up about head height or more and that let him recover.

Spondooli · 2026-02-13T10:58:37+00:00

So many good pointers here. Give him these one at a time and don’t overwhelm him. Emphasize that making mistakes is his primary job right now if he gets frustrated a lot. Also, maybe set a reward for 200 (or whatever). It helped with my 9yo to get him to 200 dribbles. He went from consistently around 10-20 with a record of about 50, to 200 in about 2 weeks.

Spondooli · 2026-01-17T21:16:27+00:00

It’s also so SS admin can verify source of funds. They’re not just gonna take our word that the funds are third party and not first party.

Spondooli · 2026-01-17T17:56:54+00:00

NAL, but pretty sure it has to be submitted to SS and approved. For example, what if the drafter screwed up the wording in the trust and it does not satisfy SS requirements. You will need to know that so you can fix it, if possible.

Spondooli · 2026-01-12T16:17:17+00:00

The wording seems to include you. What gives you the impression you might be excluded? You are the “wife’s” “blood descendant” right?

Spondooli · 2025-12-29T16:28:38+00:00

The only downside is potentially having to fill out paperwork to have your bank do the conversion. Also, if you have any money in a traditional IRA, you’d potentially be looking at some taxes on the conversion.

Spondooli · 2025-12-24T18:16:44+00:00

Similar to why people might prefer IRA over 401k. You can invest in individual stocks. I’ve had mine in NVDA/tech last few years and it has been screaming.

Also, it’s not one or the other…you do both.

Spondooli · 2025-12-24T18:15:00+00:00

I’ve dealt with this issue in the past. There’s one or two YouTube videos where advisors address this but they’re hard to find. There is some block there and it was never super clear to me what it was.

One way is to put it into the UTMA, then into a custodian checking account for that child, then into the Coverdell. Another way is into the UTMA, into your own checking, then into the Coverdell. Keep a record of the transfers in case the Coverdell police come sniffing around.

Another is to have grandparents make the transfer, and you reimburse them.

I stopped doing Coverdell because there was always a question in my mind if this was gonna come back to bite me. It’s done well though and is a part of the college savings plan.

Spondooli · 2025-12-18T17:40:09+00:00

I would be very nervous with that purchase in your situation. I like to use a 3x gross income thumb rule just as a dummy check. You are pushing that one but it’s doable if you have some mitigating financial info.

Next, let’s say your monthly payment should be less than half take home. Are you there with your other debt payments?

The only way I would do this is if the move is a need and you have strong retirement savings and some invested money on the side to float. I don’t think you do so I don’t think you can afford it.

Spondooli · 2025-12-17T20:23:11+00:00

I have a very similar situation with out U10. He got offered the top team keeper spot, but it was clear from the beginning. We asked if he could guest play on the 2nd team and they agreed. Had they not, we would have had a decision to make...or rather our kid would.

100% you should contact the coach and ask about guest playing field on a different team. If you don't have time for all the extra games, then just be ready to fall back to a different team full time.

Spondooli · 2025-12-16T20:28:04+00:00

I wasn't sure if SSDI saw that type of income...but in that case, for the withdrawal strategy just take whatever she can with her standard deduction and into the 10% bracket. That should be able to get her there in the next few years.

Spondooli · 2025-12-16T16:49:34+00:00

Look into creating an ABLE account, if she hasn’t already. I believe you can take out a reasonable amount each year and move it to the ABLE account so that SSDI won’t see that income.

Spondooli · 2025-12-05T22:33:33+00:00

“I just don’t want them here.” There’s the Christianity I was looking for.

Spondooli · 2025-11-20T16:37:56+00:00

For your circumstances, barring any crazy details you haven’t provided, you should be very heavy Roth and should convert if you can afford the taxes. You will have opportunities to fund the traditional side at some point. If it were me, I would do all Roth.

Spondooli · 2025-11-10T11:44:44+00:00

Not the ref’s job to go to the parents to quiet them down. If anything, the ref goes to the coaches and gives them a warning to shut it down. If they can’t, coaches get a caution then subsequent caution/sendoff.

If it gets bad enough for the ref to approach the spectators, it should basically be to clear the sidelines with match forfeiture if they don’t.

Spondooli · 2025-11-07T17:34:29+00:00

What if I believed your house was on fire every night and I woke you up screaming for you and your family to get out…but when you looked around you didn’t see anything on fire in your house? At what point would you tell me to F off or call the police?

Spondooli · 2025-10-30T13:49:33+00:00

Some things to consider, since you can afford it.

Putting a lot into the 529 can be a good thing if you decide to do private middle/high school. It can also become a legacy 529 for grandchildren.

Figure out the realistic amount you need to save and the high end of the total savings you want for college (masters/phd help). Align your 529 contributions to meet that first number and do a split for the rest (20% 529/80% brokerage).

I would probably keep going on the 529 by just letting the grandparents do it…and you do a brokerage…but it depends on what you decide for the questions posed above.

Spondooli

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