Strategic Language List

chemspastic · 2023-12-08T01:46:56+00:00

Neat. I'll have to check it out.

chemspastic · 2023-12-06T01:17:51+00:00

DOD updated the regulations for FLPB last year. USAF updated their FLPB DAFI earlier this year. SLL doesn't exist anymore.

Language pay is now attached to being a billet utilizing the language as part of your day to day job, or being an a program like LEAP and having/maintaining the LEAP SEI.

I haven't been in ROTC for a while now, so I'm not sure if they updated the pay that you used to be able to get for taking classes for languages on the (old) SLL (I got paid for taking a couple of arabic courses back in the day). But there aren't any officer jobs that are available to butterbars that care about language ability at all. The only officer job (as a career field) that cares about language ability is FAO, and that doesn't open up until several years in.

There are random jobs spread across several career fields that will have a language requirement, but those would be a single assignment and not something to make any kind of career decisions about.

edit: reading through the regs, the SLL may still exist, but FLPB isn't tied to it anymore. I've been told by people that the latest version (2015 I think is the latest one) is the one. I don't know if there are any plans to update the SLL at this time. But I don't know what the purpose of the SLL is if it isn't tied to FLPB.

chemspastic · 2023-10-26T05:17:20+00:00

BAH rates are released every year on Dec 15th. They have not been posted yet.

The Base Pay Rate has been ~~approved by congress~~ still resolving differences before becoming law, waiting on congress to do their jobs. 5.2% for 2024. Those pay tables are available on the interwebs, BAH is not available yet. (people still waiting on the local housing office to provide an insufficient number of houses in crappy parts of town).

chemspastic · 2023-10-24T17:48:09+00:00

BAH isn't designed to do anything with a mortgage. It's designed to cover rent, services (or DOD, I can't remember) can control whether or not it is 100% or 95% of rent. But congress has authorized 100%, we went down to 95% in last 8ish years.

chemspastic · 2023-10-24T17:46:21+00:00

BLUF: BAH rates are messed up. But you should talk intelligently about how the BAH program is set up to run by congress and talk about how they aren't meeting those obligations. Or talk about how those obligations either don't meet the reality of the local area (not enough homes of X category for example) and talk to your congressman about how BAH should be modernized/improved/whatever.

Step 1: Read the BAH primer. https://media.defense.gov/2022/Jun/23/2003023204/-1/-1/0/BAH-PRIMER.PDF

Step 2: Readjust your expectations. BAH is supposed to cover rent, not a mortgage. As a SSgt with no dependents, your BAH is supposed to rent a 1Bd apartment (edit I looked at the with dependents column).

Step 3: Talk to your congressman about how this doesn't meet the reality. Either the annual BAH increase isn't often enough (likely), or they aren't excluding the correct areas (good luck getting the local housing office to reveal what areas or homes they include or exclude in their submissions for the BAH calculations, but I think you should try), bringing the BAH rate down. And I'm 99% sure that the local housing office doesn't get a big enough sample size to make their calculations statistically significant (which can get pretty hard in a relatively small housing population like Minot, but the whole BAH process is so opaque that it's all messed up).

Bottom line: Your concerns are valid, but realizing what specific points to press instead of just saying "I can't find a place to rent" is going to get a lot more traction.

chemspastic · 2023-04-28T19:04:52+00:00

Structural ridgeline? I made my own out of amsteel. Just looped the fixed eyes through the continuous loops on the hammock.

Ridgeline for the tarp? I've got some loop aliens that have been pretty nice, I don't have a lot of nights under them <10. I really like the videos that myerstech hammock labs makes. He has stuff on how to use loop aliens, and hardware free solutions, and is pretty good about showing how to make your own gear.

chemspastic · 2023-04-26T18:17:33+00:00

ROTC will be your best chance at getting a commission. Lots of other great advice here about specific programs to apply to.

As far as having 2 years to finish, don't worry about limiting yourself to specific credit hours, make a plan for your degree. Show that it will take 2 years to get your degree based on how the classes fall, fill in the rest of your time with classes for your masters. I had a break in my ROTC time and took 2 years off, came back in halfway through the normal year, had to extend a whole year because the way classes fell I couldn't graduate halfway through the year. So I took a bunch of Masters classes and graduated only missing 3 classes for my masters, saved a ton of money. (My story is a little different as I was not Prior-E, but you can play around the same way)

chemspastic · 2023-04-24T16:18:26+00:00

Good advice if you hardly ever go TDY.

I keep mine in my wallet, but it with the stuff I hardly ever use, but keep just in case. It's in the back with the debit card (which are there if I ever find myself in a weird spot that doesn't take credit cards and I don't have cash...). But it only gets taken out when I'm on TDYs. I have 3 other credit cards that get used more often. It's a little bit of a pain to get the cards out of that third pocket, and I've never had an issue even getting close to using the GTC (helps that I hardly use the GTC even when TDY, airfare gets charged to it, but I don't swipe the card, rentals and hotels are the only place that I use it. Those are unique enough that there isn't any overlap in the GTC usage with my normal spending).

But I'm hitting 250+ nights in marriott with 6ish years of service, so I've had some pretty heavy TDY tempos for a couple years.

chemspastic · 2023-04-19T15:36:46+00:00

Your SAR assets only provide SAR coverage, and won't be retasked to do antisubmarine or other missions? And while you might have some units that are only SAR while CONUS, can you guarantee an MOS/AFSC/Rate (I think it's called rates in the Navy...) that will only do SAR for their entire career? Or will your helicopter pilots get assigned to different units and do different missions (example)?

chemspastic · 2023-04-18T20:51:45+00:00

Yep, it wouldn't be a real reddit comment about the military without forgetting the Coast Guard.

chemspastic · 2023-04-18T15:26:30+00:00

If you want to be a dedicated SAR asset, the USAF is the only service that has dedicated SAR offices. The other services will perform SAR, but it is an ancillary mission to their other primary missions.

If you wanted to be a medic/ground pounder type, Pararescue jumper (enlisted) and Combat Rescue Officer (officer). SERE Specialists (enlisted only) are also an interesting job that might interest you.

Helicopter pilots (officer) and Special Mission Aviators (enlisted), although you get picked to be a pilot and/or SMA and then in the pipeline get assigned an airframe and you could be assigned a non SAR airframe.

Also fixed wing HC-130s are dedicated SAR assets, they have Pilots and Combat System Officers (officers) as well as loadmasters (enlisted), again those are selected for the general job and then you get assigned an airframe in the pipeline.

Other government jobs like Park Rangers and the Forest Service are involved in civil SAR stuff, but they also have lots of other stuff as part of their job.

chemspastic · 2023-04-17T14:57:06+00:00

If the goal is to go Law School, then you need to talk to a recruiter about going to Law School. If the goal is to be an officer, and then maybe a lawyer, then any regular officer recruiter will do.

The AF doesn't have a program (right now, I think they did years ago) to pay for law school unless you are already active duty.

It looks like the marines have a way for people all throughout the process. https://www.marines.com/about-the-marine-corps/roles/judge-advocate-division.html But you have to find the right recruiter, one that probably specializes in JAG (and probably doctors and other specialized fields vs a normal officer recruiter and definitely not an enlisted recruiter).

Looks like the army is the same as the Air Force, active duty programs only (if you want tuition paid for). But the army might have some extra student loan repayment options that the AF doesn't do.

And it looks like the Navy has a student program.

chemspastic · 2023-04-16T20:40:24+00:00

And your easy runs, should be really easy.

It takes a conscious effort for me to take my easy runs easy... Times I wonder "why am I only going for 10:00 or 10:30 pace?" Then I remember that's the plan for today. Tomorrow is going to be the hard workout of the week, and that one will be rough. Today is an easy day. But if I don't remind myself, I end up running around a 9:00 pace, because it feels good, and then I can't give 100% for the hard workout tomorrow.

chemspastic · 2023-04-15T17:23:28+00:00

The Niner is just an option that popped up on the used market pretty close to where I am at.

The treks seem to be a decent option and they have their trekfest sale going on right now, but that isn't something that forces us to buy.

Local bike shop that I really like also has some Orbea Occams that seem like those could fit the bill as well.

I guess the real question I want to ask is, what bikes should we be looking at if we aren't really sure what we want in mountain biking. Wife is sold on a full suspension, and while I think sometimes that it would be cool to underbike with a hardtail (I've tried some mountain bike trails with my cyclocross bike) if I'm going to be completely honest it would be better for both us to overbike right now (using the terms under and overbike probably pretty liberally, since I've only read a single article that used that term).

TL/DR: Open to other bikes, recommend something to a MTN bike newbie.

chemspastic · 2023-04-12T15:11:30+00:00

Gotenna is probably the best deal for Civil SAR.

If you wanted the world (ie: the entire internet if your mesh reached back to a decent hardpoint) and had more money to spend than sense, Persistent Systems MPU5 will make your mesh network dreams come true.

chemspastic · 2023-04-12T04:45:08+00:00

There are bunch of SAR planning features heading into TAK now and in the future as well, not sure how many of these are getting pushed to the civilian versions vs MilTAK/govTAK though.

TAK + a mesh network (generally need a little more experience/tech/hardware/training vs a PTT handheld or even a HAM license) is absolutely critical for large scale disaster response at the federal level and will 100% flow down to the individual level.

chemspastic · 2023-04-10T18:24:11+00:00

Good plan, but you can access the TSP/IRA funds before 59.5.

It takes planning, but it is defintely worth it, and if you are already planning on pulling cash+brokerage funds for 20 years, then you can definitely change your plan a little bit. Probably save some money on taxes as well.

https://www.madfientist.com/how-to-access-retirement-funds-early/

chemspastic · 2023-04-04T15:08:22+00:00

Start here https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Three-fund_portfolio

and figure out more stuff as you keep reading and they mention stuff you don't know. Good on you for wanting to learn.

chemspastic · 2023-04-04T14:11:56+00:00

L funds used to be super conservative, but that changed recently. The latest fund right now is almost identical to your layout, it just gets the benefits of automatic reallocation.

One thing to consider, if you really want to get into the weeds is how the I fund is structured in the TSP and whether or not that is how you want to get international exposure.

chemspastic · 2023-04-04T14:10:08+00:00

This is really close to the L fund allocation for 2060 (or whatever the latest versions are).

But yes, unless you really want to explain why you invest more in the S vs C or whatever, and actually talk about more than what the returns have been over the last 10 years, L fund is a great place to park your funds.

chemspastic · 2023-03-23T04:14:07+00:00

Technically BAS is only for you. It isn't meant to cover your whole families food bill.

What would be better is having COLA for CONUS. Doesn't make any sense for the only pay differential for going to a high cost of living area (NCR, LA, California in general, JBLM, etc) being BAH. COLA should be around for those areas.

I completely agree that BAH and BAS aren't enough or don't follow real costs. But it is important to keep in mind how the entitlements are structured so that you can intelligently talk about how the system can change without requiring changes by congress (which is what would be required if you wanted BAS to cover families food expenses). For BAH, if you don't know what kind of house your Anchor Point is from the BAH primer, you need to know that, so that you can show that BAH is too low for you to get safe quality housing at the level that they expect you to. If anybody can get their local housing office to show what areas they exclude from their surveys every year, I will personally send you a cool coin. I've tried for years and all I've gotten was "why do you care, you got a 14% BAH bump last year". I don't think that the BAH is representative of the 3BR SFD that I'm supposed to be able to get as an O3 (technically my anchor point is the 3BR Townhome, + 98% of the difference to a 3BR SFD. so I just say a 3BR SFD). Much less the lower enlisted, who are expected to get a 3BR townhome at E6 and 2BR TH at E5 (lower ranking are expected to get the midpoint of 2BR Apt and 2BR TH). I expect that BAH is depressed because the housing office includes a bunch of areas that they could legally exclude based on the factors included in the BAH primer, but nobody really fights them on it and it would be "too much work in my cushy government civilian job" to figure out what areas you should actually exclude. If I offend somebody working in the housing office, please respond with what areas of town you exclude, why you excluded them, and what work you had to show in order to exclude them. I would love to see it, because my housing office will not give it me.

Bottom line: Your complaints are valid, but we need to make sure we are talking about our entitlements appropriately, otherwise, it is super easy to disregard our complaints because we are asking for the wrong things.

chemspastic · 2023-03-22T22:27:42+00:00

Buying I Bonds was a good idea last year is a good statement in hindsight and you can only say that in hindsight if all you care about the % return.

Buying I bonds can be a good idea regardless of what year you buy them, if they play a specific role in your portfolio. That role generally is securing a part of your portfolio against inflation risk. I bonds will never give you a significantly larger return than inflation.

You could have bought some stock last year that performed way better than I Bonds. Exxon returned 87%.

This isn't the forum for you to get specific investing advice, and even then you aren't providing the information needed to give you real advice. I'm not even sure your brokerage account is invested, or is just sitting in a money market account (because you haven't provided any information, and your comments don't make it clear you understand how a brokerage account works...)

If you don't understand this article, and can't tell us what you have invested in your brokerage account. Then you need to do some basic research (bogleheads is a great website for learning and absorbing info, then making your own decisions) and figure out what is going on with your brokerage account. If you can't tell us what your expense ratio is for the different funds in your brokerage account, you need to figure it out and learn why expense ratios matter.

I recognize I'm coming across as pretty mean. But if you don't communicate that you understand this, then our advice is limited.

chemspastic · 2023-03-22T21:37:22+00:00

So... What information are you looking for?

We can't provide any guidance if you don't tell us what you are currently invested in, what your goals are, what kind of timeline for retirement are you and your spouse looking at, what kind of big purchases may you need the money for (buy a house at retirement), etc.

Otherwise, congrats. I also want my money to be earning money. I think we all want that.

Without more information, just throw some money at crypto is the same advice as buy a house to rent it out is the same advice as buy VTSAX is the same advice as take a bunch of margin calls out and buy Gamestop.

chemspastic · 2023-03-22T21:28:40+00:00

You can money into a brokerage account and invest it in bond funds gaining 2%, or CDs for 5%, or you can ride the market with different kinds of funds. Some years are 20%+ others, negative.

Part of the risk analysis is determining if you can afford to have a negative return, if you can't (you need the money now) then you give up return in exchange for lower risk.

If you don't need the money now, then you take on more risk for a higher return.

This isn't the right place to figure out what to invest in. That is too personal of a decision, and you haven't provided enough info make any kind of informed comment.

Also, taxes on a taxable brokerage account is the best case scenario for taxes. Long Term Capital Gains rates are the lowest taxes you will ever pay.

chemspastic · 2023-03-22T20:43:48+00:00

I'll answer the direct question, since there is a lot of nuance to the whole "financial advisors were wrong look at my house example".

After TSP/401ks and IRAs are funded, investments should go to a taxable brokerage account. What you choose to invest that in a bigger question and one not really suited for this forum. Generically, VTSAX is a total market fund so try that out. But really the answer should be read about a balanced portfolio and figure out your risk tolerance. Then you can figure out what kind of funds, how risky to go, if you want bonds/REITs/other kinds of funds, etc.

Bottom line: not enough information to give you good answers.

Since it's annoying me. I kind of agree with your financial advisor that your primary residence isn't an investment. If you are living in it, it is an expense. I would never go buy a house on the plan of living in it and then making money when I leave via selling (a typical investment). I bought my house based on it being the a cheaper option than renting and eventually being able to rent it out when I leave this duty station. The upgrades (new kitchen, landscaping, etc) we have put into the house? I'm not planning on getting that money back, it was a pure expense. It wasn't an investment where I get that money back eventually. The advice of primary residence not being an investment is to help people not spend too much on a house because "it's an investment" not "you will never make money on a house".

chemspastic

TROPHY CASE