Delay your retirement up to 12 years for just a 1% raise now?

[HawkeyeNFO]

Not sure who they polled, but I think most people are smarter than this:
Troops would delay retirement pay for cash now - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

Smells like another political football being taken out of the bag to be thrown around for a couple of months....

 

[FUEGO]

Maybe the 4 out of 5 that voted for the 1% immediate pay raise never plan on military retirement? Hence they will be better off with taking immediate money and running? Not sure how military retirement works - as in, can someone enlisted for 10 years draw a partial retirement pension without additional AD or Reserves duty?

In a parallel world, I work for a non-military government entity. A certain percentage is force-withheld from my salary and gains no interest unless I stay employed 5+ years. After 5 years I could also choose to receive a crappy pension after waiting 3 decades, or take a lump sum of what I put in.

Since I hope to be retired (early retired) at around 5 years of service, the pension is worthless to me, and in fact is a detriment since I can't invest the money that is withheld in some form that will grow (like a 401k or IRA). It is just cash sitting there in my account for 5 years not growing. I would vote to eliminate the pension at my employer. With or without a 1% raise. The only benefit I get is tax deferral of the percentage withheld, but I am pretty sure the lack of investment gains over 5 years offsets the tax advantage.

 

[Nords]

Not sure who they polled, but I think most people are smarter than this:
Smells like another political football being taken out of the bag to be thrown around for a couple of months....

Yeah, that survey stunk and the "media interpretation" articles weren't much better.

Sometimes I wonder if the people being surveyed are really made aware of the implications of their answers. "We're going to write this up as a 'Servicemembers too stupid to understand their benefits' article. Would you like to answer a few questions for us?"

 

[Semiretired2008]

The article proves that whoever they asked was not informed of what the actual questions were. It also proves how financially strapped they feel they are right now.