Jaded

You could say the same thing about an O-4 PRF though. Isn't the promotion rate to major around 95%? For all we know, the 1Lt PRF will become the vector that decides ASBC in residence, SOS in residence, ACSC in residence, and your entire career. Better do that volunteer work doing UPT, or you'll never get stratted for the Wing CGO of the Quarter award, which won't make your Capt PRF, and you'll never make O-6. This is what the future looks like. I agree that it's not something to worry about now, just days after the policy has been released.

It's not closed, but you can't drink there.

I'm pretty sure Alarm Red didn't punch a cop in the face. Or get a DUI. However, he's still not allowed to drink, and is subject to the new 11 PM curfew. Discharge people who do stupid shit. Let the rest of us live our lives. Was it a Japanese cop that got punched or an SF member?

At my base, ignoring a SSgt would result in him emailing the first O-5 in his chain direct, who would email my boss, who would interrupt my debrief to bring me into his office to explain myself, where I would then be ordered to write an apology letter (no shit).

I think it's derived from the fact that there's no rank in a 4 ship.

Selling leave is a win if you're going to lose it anyway. Not everyone is afforded the opportunity to take leave.

Fixed? Not throwing spears, but what risk of capture does an RPA operator have?

I'm not arguing that point. $4M in today's dollars in 2060 gets you as much as $1.4 in today's dollars gets you today (according to the calculator's assumptions.)

That's what the calculator says, but it's $4 mil in 2060 dollars (as you say, it assumes an increase of about 5.5% a year for COLA and raises, to keep your spending power about the same). Not that it's not valid, but your spending power isn't going to be what $4 mil gets you today. If you normalize it at 2010 income levels, the calculator shows you making $1.4 million before taxes in 40 years retiring as an O-5.

And what if you have ADSC remaining? You obviously can't just turn down a PCS/TDY if you have time left on your commitment. Is it only an option to take it if the duration of the assignment or tdy is greater than the time remaining for you ADSC? I feel ignorant asking this question.

Can someone explain the 7 day option to me? If there's a better thread to ask the question in, I can move it to there.

Yeah! Remember, you're not serving your country if you aren't gone from home at a greater than 1:1 ratio.

What's the advantage of putting tax-free deployment wages into your TSP? By my understanding, the TSP is like an unmatched 401k, which is very similar to a traditional IRA. If you invest a tax-free 5k in your TSP, and 20 years later you're at retirement with an additional 5k in earnings, you end up with 5k tax free and 5k taxable. If you were to invest the same tax-free 5k in just a normal brokerage, and ended up at retirement with the same 5k earnings in that normal brokerage, you'd end up with a 5k tax free and 5k taxable. Is this correct? I keep reading that if you deploy, this is a good strategy for retirement savings after you've maxed your Roth for the year, and I'm wondering what I'm missing.

Step 1: Use the search function (try ) They'll talk about this in the aerospace phys portion of pilot training. Bottom line: ~97% of motion sickness is cureable using the previously linked chair if you have the drive to work through it. I wouldn't rent a boat.

Is anyone here arguing against the policy of wearing reflective belts if you're running in a road at night? How do you feel about requiring people to wear reflective belts in the DFAC? During the daytime? In between their tent and the bathroom? This policy doesn't keep people safer, it reduces the wing commander's liability if there's an incident on base. It's about being able to shift blame away from himself, not about leadership, safety, or discipline. I don't even know what to say to that.

It's not more restrictive, it contradicts the AFI.

No non-A letter; lodging was arranged through the formal course, and there was no availability on base due to an ORI. JFTR 1045 states: C. Travel Authorization/Order or Voucher 1. Documentation. A travel authorization/order/voucher must document availability/non-availability by: a. Confirmation number provided by the Service’s lodging registration process; b. The date the member attempted to make reservations, and the phone number and name of the billeting office PoC; or c. Member certification that GOV’T QTRS were not available on arrival. From what I understand, a non-availability letter is only one of three separate things that can document non-availability. Am I reading this wrong?

I stayed off base during a TDY enroute. I had read this thread, and complied with JFTR 1045C by stating on my travel voucher that government quarters were not available. The off base lodging was not reimbursed, and I am now being told I have to supply a non-availability letter. I received the following from the MSgt in charge of finance: Please review the below reference out of the JFTR. This is in Appendix O, paragraph T4040, A1b. b. Uniformed Member A member ordered to a U.S. INSTALLATION (as opposed to a geographic location like a town or city) is required to check the GOVT QTRS availability (e.g., through the CTOs/TMCs) at the U.S. INSTALLATION to which assigned TDY. The AO may direct adequate (based on DOD and Service standards) available GOVT QTRS use for a uniformed member on a U.S. INSTALLATION only if the uniformed member is TDY to that U.S. INSTALLATION. Availability/nonavailability must be documented as indicated in par. U1045-C. A member should use adequate available GOVT QTRS on the U.S. INSTALLATION at which assigned TDY; however, when adequate GOVT QTRS are available on the U.S. INSTALLATION to which a member is assigned TDY and the member uses other lodgings as a personal choice, lodging reimbursement is limited to the GOVT QTRS cost on the U.S INSTALLATION to which assigned TDY (44 Comp. Gen. 626 (1965)). Paragraph U1045-C states: C. Travel Authorization/Order or Voucher 1. Documentation. A travel authorization/order/voucher must document availability/non-availability by: a. Confirmation number provided by the Services lodging registration process; b. The date the member attempted to make reservations, and the phone number and name of the billeting office PoC; or c. Member certification that GOVT QTRS were not available on arrival. 2. Authorization/Approval. When a member provides acceptable documentation on a travel authorization/ order/voucher of GOVT QTRS non-availability, the AO must authorize/approve reimbursement for commercial lodgings. Under item C1c, you are required to certify that Qrts were not available. However, item 2 states that the orders approving official must authorize reimbursement for commercial lodging. The orders approving official for PCS orders is the MPF. The bottom-line on this for your reimbursement, you either need a non-availability slip from the Shaw AFB lodging office, or the MPF will need to amend your order authorizing your use of commercial lodging. Please let me know if you need any additional information. Thanks, MSgt X What is my recourse? Who can I contact that is a higher authority? Who can call and set this straight for him?

In my opinion, Turbotax has a better interface and is easier to use than Tax Slayer. That said, I just finished filing my taxes using Tax Slayer, since it will file your state tax returns for free. It looked like one would have to pay to get Turbotax to do that.

Visa and Mastercard both charge a 1% overseas transaction fee. Most banks (BoA, Citi, Chase) charge 3% overseas transaction fees, adding 2% to what they get charged by the credit card companies. According to the following, no bank refunds this charge. http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Banki...CreditCard.aspx USAA charges 1%, adding 0% to what Visa or Mastercard both require. Capital One is the one card that charges you 0%, effectively soaking up the 1% charged by Visa and Mastercard. American Express has even higher fees, and Discover card charges 0% (but is not accepted much overseas).

Anybody have any details on getting a fighter pilot discounted watch from Omega? What % off will you get, how many do you have to buy, what models do they sell, etc?

Can they amend my orders after I've already PCS'ed? If so, that'd pretty much fix everything.

Finance put the wrong constructed cost on my travel voucher during my PCS this month. I have documentation from TMO that shows the proper amount, but on my orders the incorrect amount is shown. Finance is saying they will not reimburse the correct amount, only the amount on my orders. I'm sure if I had been overpaid, they would have no problem making the correction. Anybody have any insight on how I can convince them to do their job, or have a good JFTR section I can highlight and bring in to them?

You would have to pay tax on it, but you'll pay tax on a traditional IRA as well once you take it out, and possibly at a higher tax rate. It's all about whether or not you think your tax rate is higher now than it will be during retirement. If your current tax rate is higher, go traditional. If it is lower, go Roth. Sparky, good advice. Any words on how much to put into TSP on top of the Roth? Even 30 years at $5k/year is only $150k principle.

From what I understand there are two potential benefits to the TSP. One is if you're in the group of federal employees that gets matching contributions. The other is that it doesn't have a yearly contribution limit. Your traditional IRA is going to have a $4000 limit this year. You may be able to convert it to a Roth IRA. You would have to pay taxes on it now, but Roth IRAs have a lot of advantages over traditional IRAs for a lot of people.