Lots of talk about money and bennies, but not much talk about quality of life issues. From a military spouse's perspective I can tell you it is not worth staying just for the pension. My husband has been gone 3 months this year already and that's just training - the actual deployment doesn't start for another few months. In his 8.5 years of service, he's been gone about half that time including two 1 year overseas tours/deployments (fortunately not back-to-back). In addition as a military spouse my career options are much more limited, and we never have complete control over our lives.
If we had just wanted a good retiement I would have stuck with the cushy job I had at a government research lab - similar retirement benefits and get to see the spouse each night. Plus not a lot of chance of getting shot on the job. We didn't even really consider ER until the spouse decided he wanted to stay in the military a while - it was my "light at the end of the tunnel."
The only reason we live this life is that my husband loves it. I mean... really loves it! He's happier with his job than just about anyone else I know, and that's worth a lot. We have a lot of fun, we're happy, and I wouldn't trade our life for anything, but it isn't for everyone and it definitely isn't worth doing just for the pension.
It's also worked for us because the spouse is very aggressive about managing his career - current dream assignment was obtained by walking over to the unit, doing an "informational interview" with the XO, selling himself, and then getting them to submit a by-name-request to headquarters. Extremely rare in the Marine Corps. If he were the type who just threw himself on the mercy of the monitor or didn't constantly have his eyes open for new opportunities I think we'd be a lot more miserable.
If we had just wanted a good retiement I would have stuck with the cushy job I had at a government research lab - similar retirement benefits and get to see the spouse each night. Plus not a lot of chance of getting shot on the job. We didn't even really consider ER until the spouse decided he wanted to stay in the military a while - it was my "light at the end of the tunnel."
The only reason we live this life is that my husband loves it. I mean... really loves it! He's happier with his job than just about anyone else I know, and that's worth a lot. We have a lot of fun, we're happy, and I wouldn't trade our life for anything, but it isn't for everyone and it definitely isn't worth doing just for the pension.
It's also worked for us because the spouse is very aggressive about managing his career - current dream assignment was obtained by walking over to the unit, doing an "informational interview" with the XO, selling himself, and then getting them to submit a by-name-request to headquarters. Extremely rare in the Marine Corps. If he were the type who just threw himself on the mercy of the monitor or didn't constantly have his eyes open for new opportunities I think we'd be a lot more miserable.