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Military retirees?
Old 11-21-2019, 05:06 PM   #1
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Military retirees?

How many military retirees are on here?

Did you work after military retirement? If so, did you realy HAVE to work?

Where did you retire to?

Did your pension and any saving cover your lifestyle?
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Old 11-21-2019, 05:10 PM   #2
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Quote:
Originally Posted by moneymaker View Post
How many military retirees are on here?

Did you work after military retirement? If so, did you realy HAVE to work?

Where did you retire to?

Did your pension and any saving cover your lifestyle?
Retired @ 42 from the Navy. Had to keep working because we were in debt up to our eyeballs. Got that fixed thanks to a ludicrously high income + savings rate, we are hoping to retire at 56.
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Old 11-21-2019, 05:18 PM   #3
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Retired at 43. Did a short bridge career for 3.5 yrs to see if I could do it. BS bucket filled up and I walked away. Could
Have retired right away. Plenty of $$ without the bridge career.
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Old 11-21-2019, 05:22 PM   #4
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Retired @ 38 from military and took a 1 year sabbatical before heading back to work for 10 years. Retired for good @ 49. Thanks to years of LWBM, pension and savings provide a comfortable lifestyle till SS and second pension kicks in.
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Old 11-21-2019, 05:31 PM   #5
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I was extremely fortunate to retire from the AF in a flight test job, and get hired by a defense contractor to perform essentially the same job. I was even able to keep the same desk and work tele number. It paid a good bit more that the military gig, which enabled me to retire comfortably after about 10 years at age 58.
We ended up in Florida and have plenty of $ to cover our essentials, to include golf, tennis, and generally goofing off.
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Old 11-21-2019, 05:37 PM   #6
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We military retirees are very, very lucky to have a good pension with the same COLA as Social Security. I did civilian work for a dozen years after retiring from the Air Force, and thoroughly enjoyed it. That gave me enough to have a comfortable lifestyle instead of a frugal one.
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Old 11-21-2019, 05:46 PM   #7
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Retired at 38. Had planned to work a while longer but ended up working a whole 5 months between two jobs. Alas, I just didn't give a crap. You only need so much money. The free medical insurance was the real golden doughnut however. With that, yes the pension + the savings covered expenses like an ice cream sundae.

I was stationed in Utah but retired to a major city in Flyover Country. Had I known I was going to be able to actually call it quits for good the day I retired, I would have moved to a smaller city. But, given where I grew up almost every city is smaller to me.
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Old 11-21-2019, 05:58 PM   #8
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Another amazing benefit we have as retirees is Tricare and then Tricare for life. I calculated this is worth north of $500k in retirement savings. And we didn't have to pay for health care while I was working which saved us another $120k or so.
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Old 11-21-2019, 06:02 PM   #9
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Retired at 52 after 30 years. Returned to Washington State...pension covers everything.
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Old 11-21-2019, 08:46 PM   #10
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Retired at age 41 with 20 years of service in central Florida.

We've always been good savers and lived on one income while saving the other (smaller) income and part of the larger income. But we were not super frugal, and did not know anything about retiring early. We could not have both stopped working and maintained our then-current lifestyle just on my military pension and our investments.

And then we wanted to do a lot of travel, which required additional funds.
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Old 11-22-2019, 04:20 AM   #11
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My wife and I are both retired Navy. I did 20, she did 24. I retired at age 38 and started my current and only civilian job while I was on terminal leave. I will turn 60 in March.

Mike
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Old 11-22-2019, 04:46 AM   #12
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Another amazing benefit we have as retirees is Tricare and then Tricare for life. I calculated this is worth north of $500k in retirement savings. And we didn't have to pay for health care while I was working which saved us another $120k or so.
My Army career was split about even with 15 years active/15 reserve. I had a corporate gig after AD and retired at 60. W/O Tricare, that wouldn't have happened. Military pay and health care shaved 5 years off of my corporate gig that was getting very stale.
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Old 11-22-2019, 05:11 AM   #13
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DW and I both retired from Army, me at 20 years and her at 21 years.

She was without a job for a year but didn't like being a stay-at-home mom, so she worked at the school for another 20 years and retired with a small pension from county.

I went back to work as a govt contractor for about 6 years and then went to work at Verizon for another 18 years. No pension from Verizon but the 401K allowed us to save enough to retire comfortably.

DW is on Medicare and Kaiser so she is good and I'm using Tricare Prime till I get medicare eligible.

Our Army checks have paid house payment plus a bit of travel each year and our other expenses are paid from 401K/IRA savings.
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A "somewhat atypical" military career
Old 11-22-2019, 06:16 AM   #14
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A "somewhat atypical" military career

Quote:
Originally Posted by moneymaker View Post
How many military retirees are on here?

Did you work after military retirement? If so, did you realy HAVE to work?

Where did you retire to?

Did your pension and any saving cover your lifestyle?
How many military retirees in here? Several more than those whom have checked in so far. I think more will be stopping in soon. (For one, I think I remember Gumby being military retired?) Thank you all for your service to the nation!

My military career has been "somewhat atypical" - served an AF stint back during the cold war and said I'd never rejoin, but DID rejoin as an Army officer after 9-11 took place (I can't begin to tell you how much that pissed me off!). My transition leave out of the Army as an O5 begins in three weeks after having served just over 20 years, and "for a while" (6 mo - 2 yrs?) it'll be real retirement - not sure I'll work again or not. I'm currently 62 years old.

Two things have kept our savings from being at the level of many in here: 1) My wife stayed home w/ the two kiddos, but before they were out of the house she had to fight over 10 years of brain cancer and other health issues. She hasn't been able to work again after all that (hey, I'm glad I still HAVE her - the cancer was classified as stage 4 for a while!). So, we made do with my pretty good income. 2) I didn't even really consider retirement until after age 40 (I got my Ph.D. at 33, and after that it felt pretty good to make some decent money! ). However, how much is enough? I feel we have plenty.

So - long answer to your short question, but my pension will cover all our projected expenses and then some, and savings and interest added on will help us to enjoy the lifestyle for which we're planning. Others have mentioned the amazing health plan for military retirees - yes, that'll help too. I don't plan to take SS until 70 - I see no need for that now.
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Old 11-22-2019, 07:13 AM   #15
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DW and I are both retired military. I retired from Navy in 2013 after almost 27 years. I was 44. DW retired two years later from Air Force after 21 years. She was 41. Haven't worked a day since then. We did have to move from Hawaii to Texas to be able to afford not to work. But totally worth it.
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Old 11-22-2019, 07:30 AM   #16
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I retired from the military in 1981, then did 22 years in Megacorp . Today we have 2 pensions, two social security checks, Medicare, small VA perk, and an RMD withdrawal check.

BTW: I was 38 when I retired 1981.
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Old 11-22-2019, 10:27 AM   #17
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As my sig indicates, I retired from the AF 5 years ago after 22 years of service...and was but a "sweaty enlisted dude."

Pension and dividends have more than covered our expenses and for a few years after my retirement, also had a rental property.

DW has continued to w*rk, but hasn't had to. The good thing about this is she w*rks from home and seems to enjoy what she does. Also saving 80% of her income has significantly added to our bottom line.

Tricare is an awesome benefit and have had zero issues using it for some pretty complex issues.
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Old 11-22-2019, 10:40 AM   #18
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Retired in 2004 and did a contractor stint for 7 years and then went FERS for another 8 years. The Military retirement, VA disability (70%) and aggressively socking money into TSP allowed me to pull the plug almost 6 months ago. Numbers still say I made the right decision. (Tricare is awesome!)
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Old 11-22-2019, 10:49 AM   #19
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Quote:
Originally Posted by moneymaker View Post
How many military retirees are on here?
I am here.

The US Navy booted me out after my 20th anniversary, due to the High-Year-Tenure [HYT] policy. I was not allowed to stay on Active Duty beyond 20 years.



Quote:
... Did you work after military retirement? If so, did you realy HAVE to work?
No.

At first we were a foster-family, we took other children and raised them. As our finances settled, then we moved to a low-cost rural area, where we bought 150 acres of forest land and I build a big farmhouse.



Quote:
... Where did you retire to?

Did your pension and any saving cover your lifestyle?
We moved to rural Maine. My E6 pension more than covers what I need to support my family.

Our investments were enough to cover buying land and building a farmhouse.
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Old 11-22-2019, 11:46 AM   #20
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My 21+ year service was split between Active Duty and National Guard Duty. My pension and Tricare health insurance kicked in at age 60. We both retired later that year. The pension and healthcare cut 5 years off our working life. Otherwise, I would have had to work until age 65 for Medicare. Tricare is great and worth a ton of money. My pension, along with our savings and SS will keep us comfortable.
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