xaarman

Renting is not throwing away money, especially if you're in a location for sub 4 years. To make up closing costs, taxes, and potentially new major expenses (roof, new furnace/water heater/AC etc) you need to stay longer term. Secondly, at my first duty station, a lot of the new Lts bought new construction housing... which was cool, until it came time to sell. They paid a premium for new construction, except 4 years later, houses were still being built. They couldn't sell to the next person who wanted new construction, yet couldn't all make up the new construction premium. Most broke even or lost a little. Third, build up an emergency fund. Your vehicle could need a new transmission, a family member needs help or whatever else may come your way. Common numbers are 3-6 months living expenses. Fourth, open and max out a Roth IRA every year. Call Vanguard and until you get smart, dump everything into their Target Retirement Fund 2060 or whatever year is your flavor. Finally, do the TSP or Vanguard account on your own. Day man recommends ETFs, I recommend Vanguard Index mutual funds due to the auto reinvest feature over the next 40 plus years. Each company and fund has their own benefits, see the Personal worth thread for reading recommendations. Good luck!

Keith Tatlock (ANG MX Officer) was in my SOS class and an all around stand up guy. I picked his mind every chance I got. http://www.nefgllc.com/ecard.cfm?ID=84274

Here ya go! edit: removed because it was marked FOUO. If you missed it, PM me your .mil address.

CDs have already been discussed. If you want a completely hands off approach, consider your non emergency funds in the Vanguard 2040 fund here: https://personal.vanguard.com/us/funds/snapshot?FundId=0696&FundIntExt=INT It is diversified, and will reallocate the percentages between domestic, international and bonds to be less risky as 2040 nears. It also has a very low expense ratio, but you will have to pay capital gain taxes on any profits if you set it up in a normal brokerage account. Finally, Morningstar did a study and found that expense ratios are the single biggest predictor of mutual fund performance, even better then their own Star rating system: https://personal.vanguard.com/pdf/morningstar.pdf - while I do agree with their findings, they only studied 2005-2008, so you can't use this one single study to validate a 50 year retirement plan. You can however, use the Four Pillars of Investing book which comes to the same conclusion. -- On a second note, here's a good comparison between Mutual Funds and ETFs: http://www.fool.com/investing/etf/mutual-funds-v-etfs.aspx It's key to note that ETFs are a huge advantage when dealing with mutual funds that have high expense ratios or actively managed funds that buy/sell a lot. However, Vanguard index funds have such low expense ratios that it makes that point moot. To buy/sell ETFs, you incur normal stock brokerage fees, and the dividends pay cash into your brokerage account which will require more fees to reinvest. Mutual funds are designed to auto-reinvest their dividends, saving you the fees that could add up over 40+ years of reinvestment.

For those of you looking to get smart on long term retirement saving/investing, I can't recommend this book enough: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0071747052/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1388770069&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40 I am a Boglehead, subscribe to the thought of long term, diversified, low expense ratio index funds are the key to success. I'll post more, but on iPhone currently.

Just so we're clear, that's not me - it's our current subject's favorite opening line to every brief/comment at SOS.

"As a graduated Squadron, Group and Wing Commander..."

That's one of the hilarious things... last time at 1.25 multiplier, depending on rank/TIS, you actually made more money staying in getting RIF'd collecting the extra 4 months of pay then accepting VSP.

Slight delay from the 19th release date:

It would also leave RND with no flying mission

Uuuuuugggggggggggglllllllllllyyyyyyyyyyyy

Are they 1.2s?

I seem to remember him saying "If an officer is less then 6 years TIS we don't have to pay em, but if they have more then 6 but they had to get cash (IVSP/VSP)" - has six years always been the cut off for being paid out vs nothing?

IIRC from Lt Gen Jones, you can separate people with less then 6 years TIS and not pay them (RIF) but after 6 years you had to pay them (VSP.)

https://gum-crm.csd.disa.mil/app/answers/detail/a_id/25484/kw/force%20management/p/8%2C9

http://www.airforcetimes.com/article/20131205/NEWS/312050023/Crew-inexperience-fatigue-led-C-17-runway-mishap Not an AMC guy, but this caught me off guard: Weren't C-17s overmanned like crazy like not too long ago? Talk about the pendulum swinging, not that I'm surprised.

To be fair, Liquid had a professional and universally agreed upon stance with regards to how the Safety process is disseminated, and was going to recommend the changes. Also, going up the chain about LTs asking about Masters completion instead of how to kill the bad guys on their first deployment, etc. So there is some good coming out of this...

So... If I'm flying a 12 hour sortie out of an undisclosed location in Southwest Asia, am I allowed to talk about my ATP then? Or should I be bringing work on the jet so it's 100% business 100% of the time. Just wondering, I don't want a N/N Ground Eval when I land.

^ best post, most realistic except for the no airline talk. I have read probably 10 memoirs of people in the military, and every single one of them complains of bad leadership, too much bureaucracy and stories of people who resign in protest. Que the Dear Boss letter here... Somewhere there is a happy balance, whether it's the airlines (which we will talk about, I need to get my ATP here) or staying for 30+, it's a discussion that will happen in groups, but the decision will be made individually. No General is going to stop the conversation, especially in the next 5 years.

Talk about dating yourself... "Back when Reagan was president..."

A lot has already been posted, but I wanted reply as well - I do want to hear the CVR recordings... What information did get out and how could it have been communicated better? I would love the 72 hour and 7 day look back histories! Do any of those factors also apply to me? Can they apply to me in the future? How about my crew members? Are there common characteristics that caused maybe, a lack of sleep contributing to the fatigue, say perhaps arguing with the wife? Details matter in aviation. The accident about memorizing checklist items has explicitly contributed to me becoming more mechanical with my checklists. The C-17 is an example about adherence to TO parameters, even when you know the aircraft can do more. I can go on and on about how every accident has lessons learned. I was flying with a student last night, at night, in the weather, who looked up and said "Woah, I had no idea we were in a turn still." We had a great discussion on how every pilot is vulnerable, and then tied it into the F-16 crash that was just released. Thanks for preaching the HHQ line, but it's bunk. The "I have a secret" game is robbing us fantastic airmanship education tools, which the consequences could be dire. I agree the system won't work if privilege fails, but I have a TS/SCI clearance, wings on my chest, and fly long days full of fatigue and/or with unqualified crew members. The system is there to be safer, let it be used.

Good luck! I'd definitely go if I was in the area... And nice, conveniently fitting username!

Have to disagree and say this is the root of the problem. We do need to know, and half assing the report and giving AIB info is next to useless. Case in point, the C-17 crash in Alaska. Safety's response was "we don't do airshows, that accident does not apply to us." BS! There are so many CRM examples, Halo effect, expectation analysis, etc etc (I don't want to get in specifics, mods feel free to edit) that it is obvious the SE office was wrong. While I wouldn't mind Safety School, not all pilots want to go that route - yet they still have perfectly valid reasons to wanting to know the causal factors and how they can apply to their flying. Did you never do Lessons Learned at the end of every formal brief in pilot training? Edit: Thank you Liquid, glad to hear you share the same views as the majority of us here on this issue.

I know it's against popular opinion, but I really appreciate hearing Liquid's thoughts on these items. It's already been quoted, but saying you ordered the removal of that specific nose art will make it a lot easier for an internet detective with a grudge to vet you out - FYI.

Historically, after wars wind down, the military downsizses. We're in the midst of ending a second war. Of course the military is going to be unhappy any time cuts come our way. A significant number of people I know still haven't forgiven Clinton for his military cuts... but honestly, we could have a trillion dollar budget and 1) we'd still be asking for more 2) we'd still be bitching if anything was cut. edit: Onto the article... losing the desire to win? Yeah right- but of course Generals get fired when they publicly disagree with the policy, same as in the civilian world when you go against your boss. I just don't see or agree with what he's saying in the article.