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Anonymous wrote:Well we have a DoD budget of over $700 Billion a year so that explains a lot of it. An O6 Captain(18 years service) in the Navy grosses $138k plus a housing allowance with great heath/dental benefits. And the 4 years at the Academy counts towards service. After 20 years of service they will get a pension and can get a job in the private sector.

In The DC metro area you see the expensive cars driven by officer families. Not the case with enlisted personnel. You do your 20 years in the officer cadre and then move to the private sector. You never accrued educational debt so it is easier to spend on quality cars. Plus with a generous pension, they do not have to save/invest as ordinary citizens. I'm the son of a retired Navy Captain.

Are there really that many people that become an O6 after just 14 years of service, after being in the academy for 4 years? That's a 36 year old Captain!
My Dh is a retired Marine officer, and most people we knew, after 14 years of actual service were a couple years into being an 04. My Dh retired 10 years ago, have things really changed that much?

An O4 w/20 would still get like 115k a year in pay, plus they will also get over 40k a year in Base Allocated Housing here.

So a person in their early 40s with a college degree that has worked for the same employer for 20 years is making $165/year in the DC area. Is that really considered high income?

It's not the same--the officer's pay is equivalent to way more than 165k in the private sector. That's because the Base Allocated Housing is nontaxable, plus most military do not pay state income tax b/c of where their home of record is. And there are additional tax breaks for military.

Plus there is the pension and ohter benefits.

And then you add in the fact many have spouses that work, and the spouse does not pay state income tax either because they can claim the same home of record.

Not my experience that "most do not pay state income tax." For most of my Dh's career we lived in our home state of record.
Still what exactly is "way more than $165k" and is it a high income for someone with a degree and 20 years of experience with the same employer?

Then you did it wrong. A stent in Alaska is really the key to maximizing state income tax benefits

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Anonymous wrote:Interesting thread. Our HHI is about 800k (3 kids, mid 40s, no pensions) and I simply can't imagine buying a 100k vehicle.

Life is very expensive around here, and there isn't much left after college saving, retirement saving, and all the other day-to-day expenses.

That's because you have an expensive house, travel and other things. We have 1/4 your income and drive a $50K car and we could easily buy another paying cash. Life is expensive when you make it expensive. For the rest of us, it's manageable. I could not imagine on $800k screaming poverty. You can easily afford an 80K car and pay cash.

This. I bet PP easily spends $25k a year on vacations. That's two $80,000 car payments right there.

We don’t vacation and our house is under $400k that we made a priority to recently pay off. Our only big expense is kids. It’s all about lifestyle choices. We live way under our means.

Then you must have millions saved. What are you working for?

Anonymous wrote:Husband is retired now, former Air Force, but there was a certain type of power couple we encountered often enough in the aviation community that it became recognizable over time. It wouldn't surprise me at all that their kids would attend a private or Catholic school in Alexandria when they did their tour at the Pentagon or Andrews. We always wondered how some of them afforded it, and while I'm sure there might have been family money sometimes or the wife may have had a secret job no one ever talked about, some had to have just been trying really hard to project a certain image but the cars were leased and they weren't saving much.

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Anonymous wrote:Running joke in military circles actually. Many, many have cars above means.

Also, veterans get preferences for fed jobs. So what they typically do is get a fed job after leaving the military. Once their clearance is processed and they start their new job, they will talk to other vets who are collecting 40k/yr in disability. And they will inevitably apply for disability due to their "PTSD" despite never having seen a second of actual combat.

It’s very hard to get disability pay except if you caught in war and if they did they deserve it. It’s not easy getting a fed job and most don’t have the kind of clearance needed.

My spouses military pension is less than $1k a month. Officers do well.

It is not hard to get disability pay. Most fed jobs don’t require a clearance and veterans do get hiring preference.

Veterans preference helps if a job has hundreds of applicants it’s near impossible. A lot of military jobs don’t translate into civilian jobs except doctors, lawyers and a few others. My spouse had to go back to school and do a full career change. Hard to get your foot in the door starting at 38. And not everyone wants a fed job.

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Anonymous wrote:Interesting thread. Our HHI is about 800k (3 kids, mid 40s, no pensions) and I simply can't imagine buying a 100k vehicle.

Life is very expensive around here, and there isn't much left after college saving, retirement saving, and all the other day-to-day expenses.

That's because you have an expensive house, travel and other things. We have 1/4 your income and drive a $50K car and we could easily buy another paying cash. Life is expensive when you make it expensive. For the rest of us, it's manageable. I could not imagine on $800k screaming poverty. You can easily afford an 80K car and pay cash.

This. I bet PP easily spends $25k a year on vacations. That's two $80,000 car payments right there.

We don’t vacation and our house is under $400k that we made a priority to recently pay off. Our only big expense is kids. It’s all about lifestyle choices. We live way under our means.

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Anonymous wrote:Running joke in military circles actually. Many, many have cars above means.

Also, veterans get preferences for fed jobs. So what they typically do is get a fed job after leaving the military. Once their clearance is processed and they start their new job, they will talk to other vets who are collecting 40k/yr in disability. And they will inevitably apply for disability due to their "PTSD" despite never having seen a second of actual combat.

It’s very hard to get disability pay except if you caught in war and if they did they deserve it. It’s not easy getting a fed job and most don’t have the kind of clearance needed.

My spouses military pension is less than $1k a month. Officers do well.

It is not hard to get disability pay. Most fed jobs don’t require a clearance and veterans do get hiring preference.

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Anonymous wrote:Also when you move, they pay for you to ship one car (unless dual military, then two) so a lot of military families have one really nice car lol

Yup, plus pay for your move, and pack you up with precision.

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Anonymous wrote:Isnt it better than free housing, since most officers rent out their homes, plus get their housing stipend?

? What do you mean by "most officers rent out their homes?" Like they own a home in Oklahoma which they rent out, but they are stationed at Ft. Belvoir, so they get a housing stipend to live in Northern VA? Yes...and they have to rent a home (or buy a home and pay mortgage on it) in Northern VA. Plus home owners/renters insurance. Plus utilities. Plus maintenance, etc.
Or they can live in base housing, but then they won't receive the housing stipend. Base housing isn't always available, depending on the rank and base. Base housing is sometimes compulsory, but usually that's just in very high positions like a base commander.

Base housing is not unusual - and it is free, so if they rent out their house that is paid for, it is free money.

It's not "free" they are working for it. Part of their compensation package is housing, either in the form of base housing or a housing allowance.
And EVERY landlord that rents out their house gets "free money" if you want to look at it that way.

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Anonymous wrote:Isnt it better than free housing, since most officers rent out their homes, plus get their housing stipend?

? What do you mean by "most officers rent out their homes?" Like they own a home in Oklahoma which they rent out, but they are stationed at Ft. Belvoir, so they get a housing stipend to live in Northern VA? Yes...and they have to rent a home (or buy a home and pay mortgage on it) in Northern VA. Plus home owners/renters insurance. Plus utilities. Plus maintenance, etc.
Or they can live in base housing, but then they won't receive the housing stipend. Base housing isn't always available, depending on the rank and base. Base housing is sometimes compulsory, but usually that's just in very high positions like a base commander.

Base housing is not unusual - and it is free, so if they rent out their house that is paid for, it is free money.

Anonymous wrote:Also when you move, they pay for you to ship one car (unless dual military, then two) so a lot of military families have one really nice car lol

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Anonymous wrote:Op checking back in. FWIW the three families I am referring to have 2, 3 and 3 kids respectively, and the parents are around 40yrs old. So I assume they are higher ranking officers with years of military experience. One sometimes comes to school in what appears to be a flight suit type uniform.

One has a spouse that is a teacher, another has a HR type role for a Fed agency, the third I have no idea. I genuinely have no clue what officers make, I clearly don't know their family or personal financial situation. And those details are none of my business. It just surprised me to see the only military parents in my kids classes all driving such expensive vehicles. I didn't know if they got free or subsidized housing, which would be huge. Or that maybe officer can make more than I would have guessed. The only ~$40yo parents (not young people or singles) we know with multiple kids that drive $100K cars are lawyers or doctors So our perspective is clearly bias.

If they are in a flight suit they are higher level officers and probably doing very well. They also probably get special duty pay.

Also, a higher level officer with kids in this area gets just under 4k a month in base allocated housing allowance to put toward their housing costs. That's on top of pay. You can see how the higher level officer plus GS-14 wife couple would be doing fine.

Don't they get more money for each kid they have?

Anonymous wrote:This people around here are so biased against military. If you think it’s do great why don’t you serve?

Anonymous wrote:Probably bought them used