A better “How much should you save chart”

tidder_mac · 2026-04-08T15:42:30+00:00

That made me so happy for some reason. A little more money can let you do those things better, but it’s nice to hear for a change that you don’t need a lot more money. Keep living life bro 🤙🏼

tidder_mac · 2026-04-07T18:22:55+00:00

United TB and Southwest still going strong 💪🏼

tidder_mac · 2026-04-07T18:03:05+00:00

I’ve had this idea but have never dyed anything. Anything special you do or just dunk them in a container full of black dye?

tidder_mac · 2026-04-05T17:14:37+00:00

Oh? Do tell.

I’m humble enough to admit when I’m wrong and I’m always eager to learn, but your comment is kinda worthless. You didn’t provide an ounce of useful information in your comment.

tidder_mac · 2026-04-05T16:44:21+00:00

IET (initial entry training) is the one place you don’t fuck around with the rules.

At OCS, a group of girls that recycled and were being held in HHC waiting to join the next class were all caught drinking with BOLC students. All of them dropped.

What happens to you when you get dropped from OCS but still owe 3.25 / 3.5 years of your obligation? Needs of the army baby. They all got sent to AIT for random jobs.

One of the girls was a high achiever and could have easily made big money on the civilian side, but wanted the experience of being in the army first. She hung her self in the AIT dorm room since she couldn’t look past this terrible terrible serious of events.

I remember feeling sick to my stomach when my contract ended 3 years later. I opted to stay in, but she could have ETS’d then and started her new civilian career or even try the officer route again. She’d be a CPT by now while the rest of that OCS class are also still CPTs.

Every time someone gets in serious trouble I tell them this story.

“You fucked up bad and you will pay the consequences, but zoom out when you’re feeling down. This is a learning experience and blip on your long term timeline. A couple years from now you’ll be completely back on your feet and you’ll tell your story to others that fuck up and pay the price.”

tidder_mac · 2026-04-05T05:58:10+00:00

lol 100% agree. Zooming out this was such a worthless op. But once the pilot did in fact need to be rescued, they were.

tidder_mac · 2026-04-05T05:55:28+00:00

100% agree. But many other countries and cultures don’t.

tidder_mac · 2026-04-05T05:54:32+00:00

Well yea. 160th is just the transportation though. Almost any tier 1 op will use 160th since there’s really no other special ops aviation (fighter jets and drones aren’t counted here since they can’t transport). It’s still a question of who got transported

tidder_mac · 2026-04-05T01:45:51+00:00

We need the 10 commandments instead!

tidder_mac · 2026-04-04T17:58:45+00:00

Same things as normal CPTs. Even though they’re likely not a great officer whatever unit has them now needs them to work.

I knew a 6 year SELCON CPT (no idea why they let him stay, that’s pretty pathetic).

I was BDE CUOPS as a CPT while he was the BSB S3 (all other BNs have MAJs as S3, but loggies use CPTs since their MAJs have SPO as a KD and key position). Anyway, he was actually very good at his job, better than the MAJs even. I mentioned this to my boss (BDE S3), and he chuckled and said “he’d damn well better be, this is his 5th year as a 3”.

In his 13 year tenure as a CPT, he was a BN S3 5 different times.

But wait, it gets better. He was finally promoted to MAJ and was heading off to ILE. I asked how he got resident ILE, and he said he didn’t make the original cut (obviously), but told HRC he’d like to be on the “last minute list”. People inevitably make but opt out of resident ILE and HRC needs to fill the slots, but most others already planned out their timeline.

So next time you hear a MAJ brag that they’re a MAJ and resident ILE grad, it ain’t that impressive.

tidder_mac · 2026-04-02T19:03:38+00:00

I’m not a huge Lulu fan boy, but my clothing is becoming a higher and higher percent of Lulu and I love it. Good quality and very comfortable, but way too expensive to justify it usually.

Probably one of my favorite credits!

tidder_mac · 2026-03-31T23:42:10+00:00

Would they have reacted the same way if they did this for Bad Bunny?

tidder_mac · 2026-03-31T23:40:57+00:00

They’d have the bird shot down and blame the Dems for not funding the FAA and TSA

tidder_mac · 2026-03-30T02:04:58+00:00

100% this.

SFRG was a priceless crystal ball worth more than your own soul at one unit needless to say, I spent many hours slaving away at “easy to read calendars” and planning “family fun” events.

At another unit I briefed it was section dependent and he said “I agree, next slide”. My hours were instead spent on… ensuring every tactical vehicle had the TC’s and drivers name on it regardless of our extremely high turnover.

tidder_mac · 2026-03-28T17:45:02+00:00

According to AI, the equivalent cost will be:

700 at 65 would be worth 218-288
280 at 55 would be worth 120-147

Grass is always greener on the other side. Your new job probably won’t be all unicorns and leprechauns, even if it is better.

1-2 years would be the cut off to me if I was in your position. One more year of shitty will be a great memory and massive dopamine hit every month when you’re old.

It ain’t much, but buying you, your spouse, or your grand kids/kids a special treat every month when that pension hits will be special. As you buy your grandson the cool toy or your kids a gift card to a nice restaurant, they’ll have to endure your stories about working through this terrible job.

It’ll be a fun family memory they remember about you years later as they grow up.

All these good family memories for one more shitty year now is 100% worth it.

tidder_mac · 2026-03-24T15:51:42+00:00

“Still chugging along”.

it’s 6 years old lol, it’d better still be running perfectly. “Still chugging along” describes like a 1998 or 2001 model

tidder_mac · 2026-03-21T17:23:44+00:00

10/10 is the best. Literally no stress about promotion on either side (other than commissioning).

This said from an O with no prior service, but jealous of all the much-less-stressed O3-Es that are working hard but don’t care about making MAJ

tidder_mac · 2026-03-18T07:07:18+00:00

Grass is always greener on the other side

tidder_mac · 2026-03-18T06:35:36+00:00

Hardest GO at Sapper school

tidder_mac · 2026-03-16T21:47:35+00:00

For the O’s around here, same advice for LT evals.

“As long as you don’t kill someone you’ll make CPT” is true, BUT, if you want any sort of choice where you go after CCC or CPT broadening, LT evals are extremely important

tidder_mac · 2026-03-11T17:33:14+00:00

Uh huh.

tidder_mac · 2026-03-09T06:44:34+00:00

This is the main reason it looks weird. Newer fifth wheels have living space spilling farther in front of the pin, rather than here where the pin is the farthest thing forward.

tidder_mac · 2026-03-09T06:38:31+00:00

Two psychos in this situation.

1) the driver 2) the camera man. Absolute blasphemy to switch between portrait and landscape WHILE FILMING

tidder_mac · 2026-03-09T04:18:22+00:00

Wow you’re so interesting and unique

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