After only 20 years, your gov. pension is 1/2 your salary for life!

yep... not bad, eh?

That doesn't seem true. Do you have a link?

ward wrote:

This is crazy government is in financial trouble.

Each military person regardless of where they served gets a pension of 1/2 their salary after only 20 years.

You can retire at 38 and collect 50% of your salary for life?

ward wrote:

This is crazy government is in financial trouble.

Each military person regardless of where they served gets a pension of 1/2 their salary after only 20 years.

You can retire at 38 and collect 50% of your salary for life?

You forgot to mention that if you don't reach 20 years of service you get NOTHING.

The system is redickulus. I know someone who retired at38 after 20 years as an MP in the army. Pension. Started working for the county at the county hostpital as head of security ... 20 years ... boom another pension. He worked the system great. Retired at 58 with two gubmint pensions.

The far majority receiving that duty haven't seen any "front line" action.

This is also on top of free education and medical benefits for life.

The government is paying much more than the market dictates. (Also considering the quality of employee hasn't been the best.)

My parents bet their life savings on opening a convenience store and retired in 10 years. These guys bet their lives and get to retire in 20. Sounds fair to me.

It is not easy to stay in for 20 years you have to be promoted or they won't let you retire. After about 12 years, they don't want you, like a sports team with an aging star. If they ship you to Korea, you have to go. Do you risk North Korea and bring your family or miss the early years of your kid's lives?

Don't forget nearly automatic pay raise every year, automatic pay raises every two years, free healthcare, tax exempt income (bah, bas if married or have dependents), free education benefits, no state income taxes, no sales tax on base...

Its a pretty good gig if you can deal with the mountains of bs...not that many stay 20, vast majority get out after first term...of course most are kids and get out to use education benefits. Its a very hot and cold life. You are either very busy or very not busy. Its also not a job but a lifesyle that most can't manage.

Alan

lnnsadfur wrote:

My parents bet their life savings on opening a convenience store and retired in 10 years. These guys bet their lives and get to retire in 20. Sounds fair to me.

It is not easy to stay in for 20 years you have to be promoted or they won't let you retire. After about 12 years, they don't want you, like a sports team with an aging star. If they ship you to Korea, you have to go. Do you risk North Korea and bring your family or miss the early years of your kid's lives?

Getting promoted is easy. You can retire as a Staff Sergeant. A lot depends on your MOS which is why a lot of SPC and SGT reclass, so they can get promoted.

Its a roll of the dice. In 4.5 years I have not deployed, but I know a guy with same MOS who has deployed for 8 of the 16 years he's been in and he has 5 kids. I know many guys who have missed the birth of their kids or missed their first year. Divorce rate is astronomical.

You have the ability to partially control your assignments through reenlistment, calling branch, or dropping packets to volunteer for various assignments (recruiter, drill sergeant, ect)

Korea is the hot ticket right now. Seems like every other person I know with my MOS is getting orders for Korea.

I've been to Fort Polk, LA...Fort Stewart, GA...and now Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD...so assignments are hit and miss. When it warms up around here maybe ill head to DC, Philly, or NYC and my opinion of this place will improve. Right now I miss being able to go to the beach in March.

Alan

ward wrote:

This is crazy government is in financial trouble.

Each military person regardless of where they served gets a pension of 1/2 their salary after only 20 years.

You can retire at 38 and collect 50% of your salary for life?

It’s not as if you get much value for your bucks either.

Last time I checked in 2013, the so-called defence budget of the USA surpassed that of the total of the next 10 highest military spending nations in the world.

Yet since 9/11 the US has been effectively losing or have lost the 5 major wars they have been involved in - Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria and now, Yemen.

I notice even now, the Pentagon has lost track of $500 million in weapons in Yemen that are now in the hands of al-Qaeda - par for the course.

I must admit though, I had no idea your armed forces had such generous conditions of service, especially as has been commented on, very few are actually risking their lives in the service of their country.

I was always surprised that, according to your TV programmes, your police, fire personnel etc retired on two thirds pension after a mere 25 years?

I rather think, like our UK public sector pension funds, your public sector pension funds are unfunded and in deep debt.

You think 50% is good? You should see the percentage I get for working in small town gov't for 30 yrs.

Sure the benefits are great, but then you have to work in government! Not worth it

Binks wrote:

Yet since 9/11 the US has been effectively losing or have lost the 5 major wars they have been involved in - Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria and now, Yemen.

Idiot. All these battles were won.

If Europeans once wake up to understand that the fight for Western civilization against Islam is an ongoing war for the last 1400 years, they would allocate more resources to their own defense. Then we wouldn't need to endlessly step up for them.

tired of leeches wrote:

Binks wrote:

Yet since 9/11 the US has been effectively losing or have lost the 5 major wars they have been involved in - Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria and now, Yemen.

Idiot. All these battles were won.

If Europeans once wake up to understand that the fight for Western civilization against Islam is an ongoing war for the last 1400 years, they would allocate more resources to their own defense. Then we wouldn't need to endlessly step up for them.

Binks is a certified idiot. Major wars? Ha! Meanwhile he complains about the US military which is currently deployed in the UK helping to keep him safe. Idiot is right.

Compared to working a good job in the private sector, a 20 year military stint is a terrible financial move unless you can make it to a very high rank. I have family who retired from a pretty high level position in the Navy (commander). Despite having some translatable skills to the private sector (logistics), he could never get a real job anywhere and just muddled around doing things like woodworking and restoring cars. They live a very middle class lifestyle and will probably not have much left to pass on to the kids. Compare that to my father who had a full career in the private sector as an engineer and then a manager. He has a very large investment portfolio which has not been touched at all over 10 years of retirement (investment income is paying all the bills). He travels all the time, goes to nice restaurants and attends theater/symphony whenever he wants. Both have the same background (4 year college degrees and masters at top programs). But after 20+ years in the military, there are few options and you lose out on some of your best years for earning income and status in the private sector. Even with the generous benefits, it is still a sacrifice to have a career in the military.

Military service is a sacrifice but MANY MANY retired military folks go on to have successful civilian careers. Some do not transition so well. Some don't want a serious civilian job, just something to supplement their income.

The benefits of military service is good. Just the education benefits alone are a great benefit. That is how you build a better voluntary force. People who think the military consists of people that are too dumb to do anything else is very out of touch with the military (or just trolling).

With that said, I don't know that the current pension system is going to survive much longer. There is already talk about switching to a contribution plan similar to a 401K. It will take a long time to change but it just might happen. There are good aspects to that but it is not popular within the services.

That's nothing compared to what police officers and fire fighters get. Their pension is based on their highest earning year. Every police officer I know abuses this. They get as much overtime as they want and rack up the hours so they get a pension that is double what normal people get. This is why every city and state in the country is bankrupt.

not sustainable wrote:

That's nothing compared to what police officers and fire fighters get. Their pension is based on their highest earning year. Every police officer I know abuses this. They get as much overtime as they want and rack up the hours so they get a pension that is double what normal people get. This is why every city and state in the country is bankrupt.

You ask people to put their lives on the line and you have to be willing to pay for it. Salaries for these jobs are not that good for the most part (there are exceptions) so the pensions make up for it. I agree it puts a large burden on the cities and states.

Most of the police that I know is very adept at using the system to their maximum benefit.

not sustainable wrote:

That's nothing compared to what police officers and fire fighters get. Their pension is based on their highest earning year. Every police officer I know abuses this. They get as much overtime as they want and rack up the hours so they get a pension that is double what normal people get. This is why every city and state in the country is bankrupt.

It still goes back to the voters. Citizens hate the idea of government employees being paid the same as private sector employees, so government jobs end up heavily back loaded with pension benefits, lots of vacation days, sick days and holidays. It's just the yin & yang of compensation.

I know a lot of government employees that would gladly take the higher pay now rather than the security of later, but that doesn't seem to be popular with voters and the politicians they put in place.

In 2013 lawmakers set aside $436 million for the construction and maintenance of the M-1 Abrams tank, of which the Army currently has more than 2,300—with another 3,000 in storage, despite the the Army’s chief of staff telling the Associated Press he didn't want or need them.

In 2012 Defense Logistics Agency spent $733 million on supplies it already had too much of due to poor logisitics management.

Over $500 million in helicopters were given to Afghanistan’s military that the Afghans and US have stated they can’t maintain.

In 2012, a US Army sergeant with 20 years service made less than my company bonus. I think there are other areas of defense spending we should focus on before dragging people's pensions in to it.