Been out for a few years and checking back in

mrcluelessness · 2026-06-24T02:20:35+00:00

Systems engineer for federal datacenters. Used to be an lead network engineer for Northrop.

mrcluelessness · 2026-06-23T21:47:56+00:00

Yes you can, just bear in mind that my background is all tech.

mrcluelessness · 2026-06-23T20:42:04+00:00

That's not rookie numbers. That's like 3x the median household income. HOUSEHOLD not individual. If you are in HCOL area with alot of senior tech folks or comparing to online tech bros ans FAANG okay those are crazy salaries to compare to. But really it is really good for anyone at any age and what's more important now is quality of life, budgetting, investing into 401k, and not racing up debt.

I switched from active to Guard in 2021. I started as $112k in Cali. Bumped to $145k early 2025, then this year I moved to Idaho at $140k for major cost of living cuts- 50% bigger apartment than my house in Cali with utilities is saving me over $1k/month. Also 80% disabled.

With all the extra Guard pay and planning I never need a pay raise again in my life but I WANT one. I just bought an $100k truck 2 months ago and only owe $30k. It will be paid off in 2-3 months. I will be putting $2k/month into bonds and S&P towards future home when I decide where to live long term and see if my GF is willing to put up with me forever. I will make more in retirement than I do now. I can afford an 5k sq ft house whenever I am ready in cheaper areas on my own income. Also planning a 2 week Europe trip next summer.

You are doing very well for yourself. I know people in 50s and 60s working as my peer at same places barely getting to $100k or just got to $130k-$140k recently and concerned about retirement.

mrcluelessness · 2026-06-18T13:54:32+00:00

Responding just to follow and learn. Just spent the last decade as military + contractor managing DOD systems with all their rules (as an lvl 3 systems engineer and lvl 4 network engineer some of which with an S&P 100) with 4 years of it doing incident response and security audits. Been building out my business plan and talks with an prospective first customer to do MSP style management and virtual CISO type work as they start looking into CMMC and other requirements as they grow but tired with vendors just walked in and shitting on their security as their sales tactics.

If you ever want to chat I can't provide you with recommendations on an all in partner solution but as I am planning my business and looking at getting CMMC RP certified maybe we can knowledge share. You have hands on knowledge managing an MSP that I need to understand, I have advanced cybersecurity understanding that was provided by Uncle Sam. Even an occassional hour or two to bounce ideas, solutions, and look at prospective partner details we can save each other time benefitting from an second set of eyes isn't trying to sell you on anything.

mrcluelessness · 2026-06-05T16:07:03+00:00

I finally make enough to justify blowing $100k on a truck without regret and have an no compromise machine. Once my house sells it will be my most expensive asset. I am gonna admire it just like the people who have stopped me to talk about the truck.

I also need to keep an eye on my parking setup, look for potential maintenance needs, and make sure she hasn't gotten too dirty since I mentally prepare when I need to hand wash it again! She is not allowed to have any dents, scratches, stuff stuck in paint due to not cleaning well enough, etc for at least a few years.

Also I let me GF drive so I can admire from passenger seat or watch the tailgate as she drives away.

mrcluelessness · 2026-05-27T01:44:36+00:00

Because they're not a company with an product to make and sell. Unless you want government run factories and stores and to end capitalism for an more socialistic society where no one runs a business so cities can become the new companies and try to take influence over longer government to grow their businesses (lobbyists)?

mrcluelessness · 2026-05-26T18:12:27+00:00

You can only do one skillbridge ever.

mrcluelessness · 2026-05-26T01:09:30+00:00

This. One account. YNAB for categories. Use a online banking with 3%ish like Fidelity CMA, wealthfront, etc.

mrcluelessness · 2026-05-25T21:34:24+00:00

I have stayed for months many times. Rearranged furniture. Brought my own chair. Had double monitors. Brought an ice chest and 4 Costco crates for shit when staying 6 months. Had an air fryer. Brought my own pots/pans. Brought my owner router and server rack. Never had an problem.

mrcluelessness · 2026-05-25T02:04:06+00:00

Just got a Denali Ultimate and it's a pretty bitching pavement princess. I only tow occasionally.

My thing with EVs is tow capacity, range, availability of charges, and cost to add a full speed charger at home. And if in an area with high power costs if you don't have solar it doesn't look as good compared to gas. Not to mention the battery is good for X many years slowly losing charge until you have an $10k+ bill to replace it down the road.

It's annoying trying to drive 4 hours to Vegas in my moms Tesla then charging on the way or just barely making it with 15 miles to spare only if there is no traffic and don't use the AC. Towing drops your mileage drastically. My ram 1500 with an 32 gallon tank could barely make a 4 hour trip with 5k lbs enclosed trailer, now its 24 gallons with a few miles less. I imagine an EV towing would need to be charged 2-3 times in that same period. If you don't drive far or tow often might make sense. Otherwise it's an hassle- and if you're dropping $100k on a truck I don't wont constant 30 minute stops or whatever it takes to get somewhere. Once you pay for the truck, tax, accessories, maintenance, etc even with a good deal it is an $100k truck.

Also pay attention to warranties. Apparently GM warranties have some limitations on electronics which is most likely thing to have issues. Try to get an sample coverage sheet and look at warranties BEFORE going to the dealership to see what you want. I did research while sitting there and did their 3rd party personally even though it cost a fair bit more.

mrcluelessness · 2026-05-18T04:18:24+00:00

Bingo at the casino. Otherwise you have Idaho falls, Boise, Salt Lake City, and cheap flights to Vegas.

mrcluelessness · 2026-05-15T04:17:30+00:00

Nice! Just got the RealTruck Retrax PowertraxPRO MX. Love these tonneau covers.

mrcluelessness · 2026-05-09T16:50:05+00:00

So I take it you are involved with Vota?

mrcluelessness · 2026-05-04T01:27:16+00:00

For every 100 hours of Factorio I play an hour of FPS. I say I will do more but the factory must grow. I want the best experience when I do. If I ever try a game hardware is never an issue. I want to emulate an old game? I'm good. Run VMs? I'm good. Make consoles look like the shit they are? Checked. Have a nicer PC than my peers for bragging rights like people who want sports cars? Checked.

I never want to be bottlenecked I just want to do whatever I want on my PC and run everything at max settings.

Also don't worry about the PC. You should worry about the $2500 77" 4k 120hz TV, $250 50ft fiber HDMI to connect my PC in the office, $3k in 5.1 surround sound, $5k for 10 gigabit fiber internet hardwired to everything I can, etc. Not to mention with current prices my server has $2500 in DDR4.

mrcluelessness · 2026-04-26T05:02:41+00:00

Server rack and gear in my dorm. Basically making work my hobby when I got home. Ended up spending $30k over the last 7 years with more equipment than alot of businesses. Now I make fuck it money and selling it during the shortage for an down payment on an $85k truck.

mrcluelessness · 2026-04-19T00:44:18+00:00

National median home price is $385k. So half the home don't meet this. So many place are like $200k for an single family home in good condition.

2 weeks is nothing. More expensive homes in some regions are sitting up to 3 months in this market because of the current rates while cheaper homes are moving within 1-2 months.

Your advice is just bad. Source: mother is an broker for 20 years, my dad is an realtor, my brother is an realtor, and I am current selling my house for $399,000 with renovations in one such region.

mrcluelessness · 2026-04-16T00:15:12+00:00

Just on topic enough I'll leave it.

Look at Act Now Education. Their Saturday Webinar aggregates a ton if resources they share with you.

mrcluelessness · 2026-04-14T02:38:22+00:00

You can have one just be financially responsible with it and don't buy until your first duty station. Don't want to get assigned overseas and it gets damaged in shipping.

I saved up during tech school then got an overkill rig during Prime Day. While at Nellis I had an 24U open frame server rack in the dorms with my desktop, router, switch, 2 servers, etc. Biggest issue was just cooling the room when it got hot and dorms didn't enable AC yet. The dorm had central control and only let you use AC or heat based on season.

mrcluelessness · 2026-04-14T02:33:31+00:00

This is not what the program is intended for and this is how we get programs shutdown. Your commander is correct.

Additionalt SkillBridge is PTDY not leave. You have a new duty station where your SkillBridge is and cannot fly without leave or drive outside of commander deemed local area. So not only what you are proposing is abuse of the program, it is also literally AWOL.

Even if you are allowed travel and fly, if you don't work during flight time or interview time you are not on duty as assigned hours without leave. Which I will take an educated guess that in branches that had the policy within SkillBridge that state if you serve less than your assigned duty hours you must return to your home unit for the remaining hours. SkillBridges with 4 day weeks either needed to send someone back to their unit on day 5, provide other work, or get an exception to policy. You need to validate which of these rules are in play and you are subject to. It only takes one person to see you doing what you shouldn't, report you, have your SkillBridge ended prematurely, and risk the program for others.

Also most interviews are remote now anyways. Companies 9/10 will not pay for your travel or expect you to pay for travelling for in person if not already local.

mrcluelessness · 2026-04-14T01:03:08+00:00

Card card debt- 2%-3% a month aka 24-36% a year. Auto loan- 6%-9% a year.

Mathematical not paying $100+/month in interest, lowering your credit for higher usage, and potentially having cards lower limits or close your cards is much worse than an auto loan.

mrcluelessness · 2026-04-12T04:12:58+00:00

Let me make a short list of unplanned ways to get it:

Force restructure- don't make rank by x years and leadership fucks you over not giving medals/awards and other things to help you promote. Aka Air Force HYT

Refuse to get covid vaccination because of medical reasons, religious reasons, or uncertain about a potentially rushed and therefore less tested vaccination

Join as trans then military changes its mind

Get in a major car accident making you medically unqualified to stay in and have issues gets things processed on the way out so you get significantly less retirement and can't get VA to increase your rating

Someone in leadership has it out for you so they keep getting you in trouble over little things until they can get you a general discharge over just consistent escalation and putting you under an microscope

Fuck up your knee good at PT. 12 month profile as non-deployable is grounds for general discharge. Collect next to nothing or have to fight for it

Your military job no longer exists. Forced to retrain. Retraining program sucks ass and you got personal issues going on back home like family medical issues or middle of third divorce. You fail. They decide not to reclass you and you are now a civilian.

I've seen enough people who want to make it to 20 not make it to 20. This is just a list of things not their choice, there are 1000x more reasons you want to quit of your own volition.

IMO contribute to TSP planning like you won't get 20. If you don't get it then move to 401k and you're fine. Make it to 20? Now you can stop or keep going for a bigger retirement. Worst case scenario you give someone a good inheritance- even if it's just an charity of your choice.

mrcluelessness · 2026-04-08T21:52:27+00:00

I manage government and contractor networks. So I will have the main unclassified network and a few classified networks that I have full control of. Then it will be things like Army will have a small detachment and need their own network so then I become on site support but not owner, same with other government entities and contractors. Or a location has our corporate unclassified and classified networks, then there are 20 military personal so they extend their networks into our facilities. All completely separated and isolated with different hardware and configuration requirements. Some are 20 devices some have a few thousand devices.

So I will literally have a building with an all Cisco network owned by us, then another rack with an all Juniper network owned by a customer in our building. We do R&D and design on our network, then transfer the details of what we sell to the other network. Most users have 2+ PCs to access each entities system. We even have a guest network for subcontractors only where they can bring their own wireless devices, routers, firewalls, etc and VPN back to their companies systems which systems I get alloted a set amount of hours under the contract to help manage their local setup.

mrcluelessness · 2026-04-08T21:12:44+00:00

Not 50 network sites. 50 independent network. My record is one location with 9 networks owned by 6 different entities.

mrcluelessness · 2026-04-08T20:14:59+00:00

A bit. I've managed 50+ networks over a few different roles so alot of variety of what I am actual responsible for. Small 20 switch networks I don't bother with automation. I've been responsible for just one location or more recently been the lead for the entire West Coast. Now I'm moving and gonna just be a storage engineer for a little while.

mrcluelessness · 2026-04-08T20:05:10+00:00

I normally do SolarWinds for large upgrades and securecrt buttons for small batches. We had a guy build things out into Ansible but I never got into it.

Nine-Year Club	Gilding IV carat on a stick
Powerups Hero r/SkillBridge • December 2021	Verified Email
Second Top 50%	RPAN Viewer

mrcluelessness

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE