@riser I mean, my statement is still objectively true. If you can retire at 38, best case, every year after that also cuts down on the likelihood of capturing a second pension as well as making you less desirable to employers. At 15 years in I have no clue what I want to do when I grow up but I know that being stuck to 23 years isn’t going to help that plan and the extra 7.5% doesn’t make me feel any better about that.
@ryannate You're using ages instead of years of service which assumes someone joined at 18-20. You also assume someone retiring from service is looking at a govt job that needs years for a second pension or a traditional employer. Lot's of entrepreneurial options at 50 years old. I know many retirees who were around 50 at retirement and got good jobs. All depends on goals and what profession one wants.
@riser This really depends on chances of promotion(varies greatly by branch of service and job branch), how much you could be paid in the civilian world, and the timing (if you’re on high 3).
For some jobs, “staying in for another promotion”, just isn’t feasible. At that point you’re looking at being a full bird or getting a star that some branches don’t even have.
@oneinhim It's possible, but it depends on the individual. My spouse retired as an E-7 after 24 years with 90% disability. As a result of years of saving and investing, paying down debt, no kids, and no mortgage, neither one of us needs to work again. For the past 2 years we've lived strictly on my spouse's pension/disability (my pension and social security kick in about 15 years from now). We live in a medium to high cost area, though it's slightly cheaper than where we were stationed. We aren't tossing around dollars like billionaires, but we are definitely doing better than "just surviving". We travel, we're remodeling our retirement home, we eat out regularly, we go to the theater, etc.
@oneinhim For the most part you will feel it is time to move on; you may extend past that point if it's in your best interests or your families to suck up another year or two. The small % is good but it's not enough to live on unless you go all the way to 30. Once your at the 20 year mark you most likely maxed out your base pay for high three.
One caveat to being able to retire and not work again is it is possible. Do you already have real estate over the last 20 years that you plan to retire to which is paid for and located in a lost cost of living area. Then its possible to live off the pension and live frugal. If you have invested in TSP, then you will see all those funds show up later when you can start to draw it but not sure anyone is buying their dream car at 67 but that is when you could.
@jordan11315 The withdrawal age for TSP (and 401ks,IRAs, etc) is 59.5, although there are a few situations where you can withdraw earlier. So maybe a little bit of time to drive that dream car.
@oneinhim Dual military couple here, planning on retiring after 20 years both as E7 or possibly E8. We are actively working towards not having to work after the military unless we choose to. Current networth is about $410,000 combined and we're projecting it to be around $1.5 mil by retirement based on average market returns.
In retirement, we plan to live strictly off pensions in LCOL areas while we let our retirement accounts grow. By 59.5 we're projecting our retirement accounts to be between $3.5-4mil. Between our pensions and retirement accounts, we'll be able to spend over $200,000 a year without having to work.
@nscr Haha you are basically me. Exact same situation, same plan, basically same networth and same over analyzing to get future numbers.
Tbh, I've slowed down recalculating numbers to see where we'll end up. Basically just putting the head down and focusing on maxing TSP/IRA'S and if there's anything extra the brokerage. Will get back to the nerding out closer to the finish line!
@meaningfulchristianity I hear you on not recalculating numbers too often, those are from the last time I did like 3-4 months ago. I used to every couple months and now it's once or twice a year.
I wish my wife and I had started investing like this when we first joined, but we didn't learn about FIRE until 2017 and didn't get really serious about investing until 2019.
