If you’re a military family...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes! We make about 350K per year and max out everything. That's sound financial planning. His 5K pension is only about half we'll need in retirement.

So, you are comparing yourself to making $350k to other families making $60-100K... and you need $10K a month in retirement. You sound very high maintenance.

Who makes 60-100K? Most of the military families we know in the DC area are making 200K+

Not sure what you mean by high maintenance. We are 20+ years from retirement so 10K won't be worth what it is today.

Then they don't have SAHMs, they have working wives.

+1. A four star general's base pay is like 197K. So you are clearly hanging out with military with spouses with well-paid jobs, not military with SAHM wives.

And there are very, very few four star generals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes! We make about 350K per year and max out everything. That's sound financial planning. His 5K pension is only about half we'll need in retirement.

So, you are comparing yourself to making $350k to other families making $60-100K... and you need $10K a month in retirement. You sound very high maintenance.

Who makes 60-100K? Most of the military families we know in the DC area are making 200K+

Not sure what you mean by high maintenance. We are 20+ years from retirement so 10K won't be worth what it is today.

Then they don't have SAHMs, they have working wives.

+1. Many of our neighbors are both officer and enlisted with working spouses and seem to be doing well. However, their spouses probably make 75k+.

Pretty much no military family with a SAHM wife is going to be over the 200k mark.

The military families I know who make 200k+ in HHI have wives that have jobs that require education AND are in demand in a lot of places so they can find good jobs when they move. Think: CPA (I know one of these), pharmacist (I know an officer whose wife is a pharmacist with a major retail chain, which makes it easy for her to transfer), nurse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes! We make about 350K per year and max out everything. That's sound financial planning. His 5K pension is only about half we'll need in retirement.

So, you are comparing yourself to making $350k to other families making $60-100K... and you need $10K a month in retirement. You sound very high maintenance.

Who makes 60-100K? Most of the military families we know in the DC area are making 200K+

Not sure what you mean by high maintenance. We are 20+ years from retirement so 10K won't be worth what it is today.

Then they don't have SAHMs, they have working wives.

+1. A four star general's base pay is like 197K. So you are clearly hanging out with military with spouses with well-paid jobs, not military with SAHM wives.

And there are very, very few four star generals.

So you just aren't counting BAH? Which isn't taxable. So it's equivalent of 2x the allowance. After taxes and maxing out retirement my husband clears far north of 100K. He's no where near a general. A wife would need a fairly low paying job to get to 200K before taxes.

[Anonymous]

My husband is an O5. I am a SAHM. We max out our Roths each year and put $500 a month into our kids 529s ($250 each). My husband transferred his full GI Bill to them evenly, so they will both have two years of college plus housing paid for by the GI Bill.

Additionally, we put $700 to $1000 in a non retirement brokerage account made up of Vanguard ETFs.

We have 6 months of expenses in a savings account.

We both own relatively nice cars, Volvo and an Audi, and we don't have loans on either. We own a house in another state and our rental income is about $500 above the mortgage payment.

We rent a single family home in Alexandria for $3800 a month.

In non pandemic times, we take one or two big vacations a year, and around five long weekend trips.

After all that, we still have extra money at the end of most months. We live pretty frugally though. We get takeout once a week. I cut the kids' hair myself. We don't buy new clothes or shoes very often. We use 3 year old cell phones. We have a Netflix subscription and no other tv services. My kids both do sports, but just on local rec teams, so not very expensive.

I think it comes down to how you are spending your money. My best friend from college is a doctor and so is her husband and they have less disposable income than we do. And that is because they have a giant mortgage and car loans. Their kids play travel sports that cost $10k a year. They eat out four nights a week and belong to a fancy gym and she gets her hair and nails done once a week. Not to mention the med school loans they both have.

If you really feel like you aren't living as well as other military of similar rank, I would suggest taking a good look at your monthly expenditures.

[Anonymous]

How many kids do you have? Do you guys not plan on them using the GI Bill?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't get your post. It almost seems like a brag. Between an officer and teacher you both do very well. You have low cost to free health care and a large housing allowance. And, low cost child care. Try being enlisted. Most aren't saving tuition and they are using their max housing allowance. And, sometimes luxury vehicles from what I learned aren't that much more than a regular one. You make officers wives look really bad.

And, if you are enlisted the pension is a joke. My enlisted retired spouse gets about $1K a month. Minus the annuity, taxes, and health insurance its pretty much nothing. And, yes, now he makes more than most of the officers who are retired as he planned really well for retirement as we didn't have the pension to live off of.

This is a mean spirited snd unhelpful response. Your response is mean spirited and you sound very insecure.

Yes, many military families don’t save heavily for school or retirement and live paycheck to paycheck regardless of rank. Good for you and your husband for saving for kids education and continuing to work. Many military families end up retiring to a lower cost of living and don’t provide significantly for kids education yet qualify for a lot of financial aid due to lack of savings/income in retirement. Many kids go on to get rotc scholarships or attend state schools etc or mom can finally go back to work near retirement and financially help out. But many just go on to have second careers and few are able to retire in early 50s etc.

Its not mean spirited. OP made a shameless brag given how high their incomes are and don't realize that's not realistic for most military families. OP lives in a very different world than other military families who have much less. There is a huge difference between high ranking officer and low and enlisted.

Providing college is not really optional in our family as its the only way to make sure they don't have to join the military/enlisted as its not an easy or great life. But, we are fortunate how well my husband has done after retiring.

Where is your degree from, PP?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't get your post. It almost seems like a brag. Between an officer and teacher you both do very well. You have low cost to free health care and a large housing allowance. And, low cost child care. Try being enlisted. Most aren't saving tuition and they are using their max housing allowance. And, sometimes luxury vehicles from what I learned aren't that much more than a regular one. You make officers wives look really bad.

And, if you are enlisted the pension is a joke. My enlisted retired spouse gets about $1K a month. Minus the annuity, taxes, and health insurance its pretty much nothing. And, yes, now he makes more than most of the officers who are retired as he planned really well for retirement as we didn't have the pension to live off of.

This is a mean spirited snd unhelpful response. Your response is mean spirited and you sound very insecure.

Yes, many military families don’t save heavily for school or retirement and live paycheck to paycheck regardless of rank. Good for you and your husband for saving for kids education and continuing to work. Many military families end up retiring to a lower cost of living and don’t provide significantly for kids education yet qualify for a lot of financial aid due to lack of savings/income in retirement. Many kids go on to get rotc scholarships or attend state schools etc or mom can finally go back to work near retirement and financially help out. But many just go on to have second careers and few are able to retire in early 50s etc.

Its not mean spirited. OP made a shameless brag given how high their incomes are and don't realize that's not realistic for most military families. OP lives in a very different world than other military families who have much less. There is a huge difference between high ranking officer and low and enlisted.

Providing college is not really optional in our family as its the only way to make sure they don't have to join the military/enlisted as its not an easy or great life. But, we are fortunate how well my husband has done after retiring.

Where is your degree from, PP?

I have a masters from a good school but that’s not revenant. Enlisted make very little and housing allowance is different so it just shows how out of touch some officers and their spouses are. I got some pretty rude comments from officers wives when I was dating my husband telling me to get my education when I had more than they did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My husband is an O5. I am a SAHM. We max out our Roths each year and put $500 a month into our kids 529s ($250 each). My husband transferred his full GI Bill to them evenly, so they will both have two years of college plus housing paid for by the GI Bill.

Additionally, we put $700 to $1000 in a non retirement brokerage account made up of Vanguard ETFs.

We have 6 months of expenses in a savings account.

We both own relatively nice cars, Volvo and an Audi, and we don't have loans on either. We own a house in another state and our rental income is about $500 above the mortgage payment.

We rent a single family home in Alexandria for $3800 a month.

In non pandemic times, we take one or two big vacations a year, and around five long weekend trips.

After all that, we still have extra money at the end of most months. We live pretty frugally though. We get takeout once a week. I cut the kids' hair myself. We don't buy new clothes or shoes very often. We use 3 year old cell phones. We have a Netflix subscription and no other tv services. My kids both do sports, but just on local rec teams, so not very expensive.

I think it comes down to how you are spending your money. My best friend from college is a doctor and so is her husband and they have less disposable income than we do. And that is because they have a giant mortgage and car loans. Their kids play travel sports that cost $10k a year. They eat out four nights a week and belong to a fancy gym and she gets her hair and nails done once a week. Not to mention the med school loans they both have.

If you really feel like you aren't living as well as other military of similar rank, I would suggest taking a good look at your monthly expenditures.

That’s not frugal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes! We make about 350K per year and max out everything. That's sound financial planning. His 5K pension is only about half we'll need in retirement.

So, you are comparing yourself to making $350k to other families making $60-100K... and you need $10K a month in retirement. You sound very high maintenance.

Who makes 60-100K? Most of the military families we know in the DC area are making 200K+

Not sure what you mean by high maintenance. We are 20+ years from retirement so 10K won't be worth what it is today.

Let me guess you only know officers. You don’t need $10k a month to retire. Most live on far less.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes! We make about 350K per year and max out everything. That's sound financial planning. His 5K pension is only about half we'll need in retirement.

So, you are comparing yourself to making $350k to other families making $60-100K... and you need $10K a month in retirement. You sound very high maintenance.

Who makes 60-100K? Most of the military families we know in the DC area are making 200K+

Not sure what you mean by high maintenance. We are 20+ years from retirement so 10K won't be worth what it is today.

Then they don't have SAHMs, they have working wives.

+1. Many of our neighbors are both officer and enlisted with working spouses and seem to be doing well. However, their spouses probably make 75k+.

A new enlisted family qualifies for food stamps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't get your post. It almost seems like a brag. Between an officer and teacher you both do very well. You have low cost to free health care and a large housing allowance. And, low cost child care. Try being enlisted. Most aren't saving tuition and they are using their max housing allowance. And, sometimes luxury vehicles from what I learned aren't that much more than a regular one. You make officers wives look really bad.

And, if you are enlisted the pension is a joke. My enlisted retired spouse gets about $1K a month. Minus the annuity, taxes, and health insurance its pretty much nothing. And, yes, now he makes more than most of the officers who are retired as he planned really well for retirement as we didn't have the pension to live off of.

This is a mean spirited snd unhelpful response. Your response is mean spirited and you sound very insecure.

Yes, many military families don’t save heavily for school or retirement and live paycheck to paycheck regardless of rank. Good for you and your husband for saving for kids education and continuing to work. Many military families end up retiring to a lower cost of living and don’t provide significantly for kids education yet qualify for a lot of financial aid due to lack of savings/income in retirement. Many kids go on to get rotc scholarships or attend state schools etc or mom can finally go back to work near retirement and financially help out. But many just go on to have second careers and few are able to retire in early 50s etc.

Its not mean spirited. OP made a shameless brag given how high their incomes are and don't realize that's not realistic for most military families. OP lives in a very different world than other military families who have much less. There is a huge difference between high ranking officer and low and enlisted.

Providing college is not really optional in our family as its the only way to make sure they don't have to join the military/enlisted as its not an easy or great life. But, we are fortunate how well my husband has done after retiring.

Where is your degree from, PP?

I have a masters from a good school but that’s not revenant. Enlisted make very little and housing allowance is different so it just shows how out of touch some officers and their spouses are. I got some pretty rude comments from officers wives when I was dating my husband telling me to get my education when I had more than they did.

Relevant?
Maybe you were texting them like you are writing here?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My husband is an O5. I am a SAHM. We max out our Roths each year and put $500 a month into our kids 529s ($250 each). My husband transferred his full GI Bill to them evenly, so they will both have two years of college plus housing paid for by the GI Bill.

Additionally, we put $700 to $1000 in a non retirement brokerage account made up of Vanguard ETFs.

We have 6 months of expenses in a savings account.

We both own relatively nice cars, Volvo and an Audi, and we don't have loans on either. We own a house in another state and our rental income is about $500 above the mortgage payment.

We rent a single family home in Alexandria for $3800 a month.

In non pandemic times, we take one or two big vacations a year, and around five long weekend trips.

After all that, we still have extra money at the end of most months. We live pretty frugally though. We get takeout once a week. I cut the kids' hair myself. We don't buy new clothes or shoes very often. We use 3 year old cell phones. We have a Netflix subscription and no other tv services. My kids both do sports, but just on local rec teams, so not very expensive.

I think it comes down to how you are spending your money. My best friend from college is a doctor and so is her husband and they have less disposable income than we do. And that is because they have a giant mortgage and car loans. Their kids play travel sports that cost $10k a year. They eat out four nights a week and belong to a fancy gym and she gets her hair and nails done once a week. Not to mention the med school loans they both have.

If you really feel like you aren't living as well as other military of similar rank, I would suggest taking a good look at your monthly expenditures.

Ignore PP. This is a well thought out plan. What is your HHI, NW and ages?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My husband is an O5. I am a SAHM. We max out our Roths each year and put $500 a month into our kids 529s ($250 each). My husband transferred his full GI Bill to them evenly, so they will both have two years of college plus housing paid for by the GI Bill.

Additionally, we put $700 to $1000 in a non retirement brokerage account made up of Vanguard ETFs.

We have 6 months of expenses in a savings account.

We both own relatively nice cars, Volvo and an Audi, and we don't have loans on either. We own a house in another state and our rental income is about $500 above the mortgage payment.

We rent a single family home in Alexandria for $3800 a month.

In non pandemic times, we take one or two big vacations a year, and around five long weekend trips.

After all that, we still have extra money at the end of most months. We live pretty frugally though. We get takeout once a week. I cut the kids' hair myself. We don't buy new clothes or shoes very often. We use 3 year old cell phones. We have a Netflix subscription and no other tv services. My kids both do sports, but just on local rec teams, so not very expensive.

I think it comes down to how you are spending your money. My best friend from college is a doctor and so is her husband and they have less disposable income than we do. And that is because they have a giant mortgage and car loans. Their kids play travel sports that cost $10k a year. They eat out four nights a week and belong to a fancy gym and she gets her hair and nails done once a week. Not to mention the med school loans they both have.

If you really feel like you aren't living as well as other military of similar rank, I would suggest taking a good look at your monthly expenditures.

Ignore PP. This is a well thought out plan. What is your HHI, NW and ages?

It’s a nice plan for higher ranking officers or dual income families but that’s not how most live. Op has high housing costs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes! We make about 350K per year and max out everything. That's sound financial planning. His 5K pension is only about half we'll need in retirement.

So, you are comparing yourself to making $350k to other families making $60-100K... and you need $10K a month in retirement. You sound very high maintenance.

Who makes 60-100K? Most of the military families we know in the DC area are making 200K+

Not sure what you mean by high maintenance. We are 20+ years from retirement so 10K won't be worth what it is today.

Let me guess you only know officers. You don’t need $10k a month to retire. Most live on far less.

The OP is an officer family...so we aren't talking about enlisted.

If you live in an expensive locale then you need more than 5K a month. Neither of us come from inexpensive areas of the country so even if we left DC and went "home" 5K wouldn't cut it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My husband is an O5. I am a SAHM. We max out our Roths each year and put $500 a month into our kids 529s ($250 each). My husband transferred his full GI Bill to them evenly, so they will both have two years of college plus housing paid for by the GI Bill.

Additionally, we put $700 to $1000 in a non retirement brokerage account made up of Vanguard ETFs.

We have 6 months of expenses in a savings account.

We both own relatively nice cars, Volvo and an Audi, and we don't have loans on either. We own a house in another state and our rental income is about $500 above the mortgage payment.

We rent a single family home in Alexandria for $3800 a month.

In non pandemic times, we take one or two big vacations a year, and around five long weekend trips.

After all that, we still have extra money at the end of most months. We live pretty frugally though. We get takeout once a week. I cut the kids' hair myself. We don't buy new clothes or shoes very often. We use 3 year old cell phones. We have a Netflix subscription and no other tv services. My kids both do sports, but just on local rec teams, so not very expensive.

I think it comes down to how you are spending your money. My best friend from college is a doctor and so is her husband and they have less disposable income than we do. And that is because they have a giant mortgage and car loans. Their kids play travel sports that cost $10k a year. They eat out four nights a week and belong to a fancy gym and she gets her hair and nails done once a week. Not to mention the med school loans they both have.

If you really feel like you aren't living as well as other military of similar rank, I would suggest taking a good look at your monthly expenditures.

Ignore PP. This is a well thought out plan. What is your HHI, NW and ages?

HHI is $162k, NW is $700k, and we are both 38.