Can someone explain the wealthy military officer phenomenon?
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Anonymous
| I'm really curious about what seems to be a subculture in the military world: the retired O-6 or higher who lives like old money. I'm guessing it's a combination of good TSP and no student loan debt, but it's such a far cry from how DH and I live that I don't know if there's something else going on or if we just make bad financial decisions. Any ideas? |
Anonymous
| What do you mean when you say "lives like old money"? |
Anonymous
$2M+ homes in HCOL areas, wife volunteers but hasn't worked in decades, no working themselves, after their 20-whatever years, expensive hobbies like sailing/horses, etc. We seem to know enough of these that it's not a one-off. |
Anonymous
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Maybe they've worked as a DoD contractors, with high salaries?
Maybe they had family money all along? |
Anonymous
| I don’t know many that completely retire after 20 years. Usually they move onto a government contractor position. Those can pay a lot, plus they simultaneously get their pension and low-cost healthcare. |
Anonymous
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Got married early, earned extra for every deployment since were married. Lived cheaply on base or got the housing and family allowance (tax free) and bought houses in every state they were based. When dh was active duty, he got like $3k in housing allowance in the DC area which paid our mortgage and it was tax free.
Free healthcare for the military member, much reduced healthcare for kids, reduced cost daycare, tax free groceries and booze, VA loans (dh is considered sufficiently disabled so we get no cost refis), no student debt. Also much better to go in as officers and not enlisted. |
Anonymous
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VA loans for housing and turning it into rentals when you change locations; pension + high VA disability + TSP + good savings from LCOL areas.
Spouses not working is a symptom of a lot of military life - moving every two years especially when most of it was before remote work was a thing. |
Anonymous
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Think of the expenses you had during your working life. Major ones were housing and kid's college fund. Imagine if someone gave you a house the whole time and was going to pay for your kid's college. Kind of changes the calculation. Also, you got to engage in posh hobbies like sailing and horses for basically free on base.
When you retire you take a position with a DoD Contractor for 250k, just low key, nothing fancy. |
Anonymous
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It's funny multiple people have mentioned DoD contractor positions. DH is looking to retire, and the jobs he's seeing are only around $90k.
Don't get me wrong, we live fairly frugally and are happy with our standard of living, but I'm curious where this financial disconnect between us and some of his peers is. |
Anonymous
| It’s not that they’re so wealthy. They’re more along the lines of lower end of UMC. They avoided a lot of debt due to military benefits. They’re not flying business class and sending kids to private school. |
Anonymous
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Retired O-6 who works for a contractor does not live like "old money" - especially if they've got kids in college.
Sincerely, Retired O-6 who works for a contractor who has got kids in college. |
Anonymous
The ones I talking about do both those things, hence my curiosity. |
Anonymous
No GI Bill? College shouldn't be killing you. |
Anonymous
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My husband is 05 and our money is:
Him $180K about half isn't taxed, depending on the assignment if in a war zone we pay no taxes Me $350K business owner Real-estate $110K I don't know 06s with $2 million homes. |
Anonymous
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- Wife is highly educated and hasn't worked a traditional job in decades because she has to be geographically mobile due to husband's work.
- Wife has managed household finances carefully and thoughtfully and knows she may not be working a traditional wage-earning job while husband is active duty. - Many costs associated with raising a family (health care, groceries, air travel, higher education) are subsidized for active duty military families. - Family has decided to pour extra pay (hazard pay, deployment pay) into savings and other long-term investment vehicles. - They sail because they are a Navy/Marine Corps family, have always lived near water, and it is something they enjoy together. They're now wealthy because they worked for it and they earned it. (No, I am not part of a military family). |