Military Reservist Ready For "Semi-Early Retirement"

[rodlykins]

Hi all,
I am 36 years old, married, with 1 child and looking to "semi-retire" soon as family time is more important. I currently work for a large corporation, after leaving active duty military at 12.5 years, and am also an AF Reservist and a computer science instructor at a local college.

Current financial situation:
- Retirement Accounts: $278K
- Taxable Account: $42K
- Savings Account: $33K
- Mortgage Balance: Paid Off (no other debt)
- Annual Expenses: ~$40K

If I left the corporate "rat race", my annual income would drop to ~$24K, which would continue until age 42 (or longer if I get promoted). Theoretically, I could do an additional 7-10 days per month, but given the current budget battles there is no funding. Hypothetically, when the funding is straightened out, I could go 7-10 days TDY and upon return have nearly 3 weeks with the family without having to work. Healthcare will be covered as long as I remain a reservist; however, my military pension would not start until age 59 (and would be almost enough to cover annual expenses).

I obviously need to increase contributions to my taxable account, as I do not want to touch retirement accounts (even with 72T). But I believe that between the AF Reserves and teaching part time, semi-retirement could be done.

Thoughts?

 

[tmob]

I am interested in hearing what the board thinks about your plan too. I too am a AF reservist and your plan sounds very close to mine. Ideally semi-ERing would get us to the finishline where the pensions (reinforcements) arrive.
Going TDY would be great but as you said, the budget woes could have that gravy train drying up. As an airial porter I see plenty of opportunities to volunteer but its all in the AOR

Hopefully you find opportunities close to home.

 

[rodlykins]

Thanks for the input...it is nice to know there are others AF Reservists considering ER. As for the TDYs, my unit does space-oriented training out at the Nellis AFB Test Range, Guam, Hawaii, San Diego, etc for short periods of time; however, they can be >30 days for longer exercises. I already took a 6-month TDY to teach at AFIT and I promised my son I wouldn't do that long of a TDY again. As a cyber guy, most of my opportunities are at Fort Meade or Lackland AFB, but right now they are only taking locals due to no money to pay per diem, etc. My biggest concern is health care, especially since TRICARE Retired Reserve is still about $1K per month...

 

[martyb]

Retired AF reservist here (2010)(enlisted). I am planning to retire from my DoD civil service job sometime this year. I'm 55, and have another 4 1/2 years before I will begin drawing my military retired pay. Wife works now, but will stop around the time I begin collecting the mil pay. We currently spend around 45k net, and that will be about the same or a little more post-retirement. That net figure is after taxes, survivor bens for wife, and after health & life insurance as well. The only other increase will be when wife's SS kicks in in 2013, which will only be $600 or so per month.