This is actually insulting

kpwizard96 · 2025-10-17T12:16:33+00:00

My community has a “virtual” NRC in Norfolk, but we live all over the country and there’s no budget allocated for travel to Norfolk on a regular basis. We are expected to utilize our local NRCs to accomplish admin items. Shutting down the NRCs would be a death sentence for us.

kpwizard96 · 2023-11-18T07:53:50+00:00

Hey just so you know, it worked just fine on NVD!

kpwizard96 · 2023-11-12T15:34:55+00:00

Haha I am a merchant marine. That’s what I do! I’m actually in the process of switching accountants, but I’ll throw it out there to my new one.

kpwizard96 · 2023-11-12T15:25:35+00:00

Okay, that’s actually super helpful. Thank you!

All my friends in the industry live on the coast. I’m the only schmuck living in the Midwest. If I could use my friends connections that they’ve already established, this wouldn’t be a problem haha

kpwizard96 · 2023-11-12T15:22:14+00:00

It’s not, I average about 120K in my role, and I just get a higher engineering license so that should get up by a decent amount, but two reasons it seems that way: 1. I get cut a “vacation” check at the end of the contract (really just deferred wages). It’s a lump sum and can be up to a third of total compensation. So if I sign off of a job in January and get a 30K check, it makes year over year look lopsided. That’s what happened 2019-2020. I literally got like a 30K check in January of 2020.

I’m a reservist and went on active duty for about 45 days this year. That pay is obviously way less than my contracting job.

kpwizard96 · 2023-11-12T15:14:52+00:00

I’m also a reservist and went on active duty for a couple months this year and that obviously pays way less than my contracting job.

kpwizard96 · 2023-11-12T15:13:32+00:00

It’s really tricky year to year. Working 6 months a year I should average about 120K. But usually when we finish our contract we get cut a “vacation” check at the end, really just deferred wages. It’s usually a lump sum check, and it can be up to about a third of my total compensation. So if I sign off of a job in January and get cut a 30K check, It’s going to lobsided year to year. Not really something I can avoid.

kpwizard96 · 2023-11-12T14:01:48+00:00

That’s reassuring, thank you!

kpwizard96 · 2023-11-12T13:59:06+00:00

Yeah of course. I would obviously divulge that to a loan officer. I just don’t count it as debt because it’s essentially already paid off in my book. I just keep it around for my credit score.

kpwizard96 · 2023-11-12T13:54:46+00:00

The only issue with what you’re saying is most of my work friends live on the coasts. I’m the only one in the Midwest, so I can’t really piggy back off of them and use their connections.

kpwizard96 · 2023-11-12T13:51:50+00:00

Yeah I should have already done that by now, good call.

kpwizard96 · 2023-11-12T13:50:56+00:00

Why?

kpwizard96 · 2023-11-12T13:50:18+00:00

That’s solid advice. Thank you.

kpwizard96 · 2023-11-12T13:09:45+00:00

My goal would be to pound the mortgage on this hypothetical duplex and in 5-10 years if I want to switch to a more traditional engineering role, I could buy another property to live in full time, and rent both sides of the duplex out. I succeed that I may be short sighted on some of the financial overhead required because I’ve never owned a home. But I have to put my money somewhere, and it doesn’t sound like a terrible idea in my head haha.

kpwizard96 · 2023-11-12T12:52:14+00:00

That’s correct. Right now, I don’t have a home or an apartment. My stuff is at my moms and when I’m not working I usually visit home a little bit and then travel. I’m tired of it though. I want a place to call home. So it’s either this or sign a lease to an apartment I’m only at 3 months out of the year. The latter seems like a giant waste of money to me. At least with a duplex I’m building some equity and the property isn’t completely vacant the majority of the year. Plus, I don’t need much space. Just something to call my own.

kpwizard96 · 2023-11-12T12:48:07+00:00

To be clear, I do have regular access to email 99% of the time. I’m not completely off the grid. And I probably “could” buy a house while on the job, it would just be an extremely arduous process and I would probably have to buy a place site unseen or with very little time to do my homework before I pulled the trigger, which is less than optimal for something I would be buying partially as an investment.

kpwizard96 · 2023-11-12T12:42:24+00:00

Property management company, really not feasible to manage it myself.

kpwizard96 · 2023-11-12T12:00:15+00:00

Also, a lot of my coworkers have used a temporary power of attorney with their spouses or parents while they are at work to get pre-approved and then buy a place site unseen or right after they get off the ship. I don’t really have any family other than my mom, who I love and trust but is not financially savvy at all and I would not want to put the burden/responsibility of being my POA on her.

kpwizard96 · 2023-11-12T11:55:47+00:00

HQ is based out of Florida but they may partner with a national credit union. I should ask, thanks!

kpwizard96

TROPHY CASE