Pajaro
Recycles dryer sheets
Hi everyone,
I've been lurking for a good 6 months, but feel some questions coming on and want to introduce myself before I get that far. I am an active duty (34 years old with 12 years of service so far) US Air Force officer stationed in South America. I plan to stay until 20 to get the pension. If our quality of life is still good, I’d like to hit 25 years which would give me a pension of 62.5% of my basic pay. However, all my planning is based around doing 20 years.
This is the first marriage for DW and me. We don’t have any kids and are able to save/invest 25% of my pay and allowances. DW is not allowed to work here, but we max out our Roth IRAs and my TSP each year. My friends think I’m cheap, but I don’t con anyone out of free meals or scoot away before the bill comes or anything like that. I just don’t like to pay full price for anything if I can get a discount by waiting, bargaining, or doing a little research--old fashioned LBYM.
I got into First Command 12 years ago (of my own free will without mental reservation or purpose of evasion), but am all out now except for the whole life insurance. I’m just waiting for my USAA term policy to kick in, but doing all the physicals in South America was much harder than one might expect.
This is my 7th duty location in 12 years, so we’ve never owned a house. We are building up a down payment by setting aside $1500 each month into CDs that mature the month I’m scheduled to leave here. Odds are that we might move to another Latin American country next. If that happens, we will have to think about another place to put that money until the day we can buy a house.
The breakdown of our $290K in savings/investments is:
47% = S&P 500 index fund (taxable)
18% = S&P 500 index fund (Roth)
6% = CDs (house down payment)
29% = TSP G Fund
So I don’t have any questions yet, but will in the near future. Thanks for all the great info I've already gleaned from many of you.
Thanks,
Pajaro
I've been lurking for a good 6 months, but feel some questions coming on and want to introduce myself before I get that far. I am an active duty (34 years old with 12 years of service so far) US Air Force officer stationed in South America. I plan to stay until 20 to get the pension. If our quality of life is still good, I’d like to hit 25 years which would give me a pension of 62.5% of my basic pay. However, all my planning is based around doing 20 years.
This is the first marriage for DW and me. We don’t have any kids and are able to save/invest 25% of my pay and allowances. DW is not allowed to work here, but we max out our Roth IRAs and my TSP each year. My friends think I’m cheap, but I don’t con anyone out of free meals or scoot away before the bill comes or anything like that. I just don’t like to pay full price for anything if I can get a discount by waiting, bargaining, or doing a little research--old fashioned LBYM.
I got into First Command 12 years ago (of my own free will without mental reservation or purpose of evasion), but am all out now except for the whole life insurance. I’m just waiting for my USAA term policy to kick in, but doing all the physicals in South America was much harder than one might expect.
This is my 7th duty location in 12 years, so we’ve never owned a house. We are building up a down payment by setting aside $1500 each month into CDs that mature the month I’m scheduled to leave here. Odds are that we might move to another Latin American country next. If that happens, we will have to think about another place to put that money until the day we can buy a house.
The breakdown of our $290K in savings/investments is:
47% = S&P 500 index fund (taxable)
18% = S&P 500 index fund (Roth)
6% = CDs (house down payment)
29% = TSP G Fund
So I don’t have any questions yet, but will in the near future. Thanks for all the great info I've already gleaned from many of you.
Thanks,
Pajaro
Last edited by a moderator: