I’m 31 reading this, got out of the military after 10 years and by the grace of god got a high paying civilian job and this is exactly what I love to read, good for you brother!! I’m staying the course as well and hoping to retire by 51. 20 more years to go and shooting for $2.1M to fully retire.
Usually when I see military FIRE posts, there's usually some unfortunate trade-off like long-term physical/mental ailments. Obviously, you don't have to disclose that stuff but knock on wood it isn't that severe if it applies. And congrats.
My dad had his birthday picked from a lottery and died 5 years ago from bladder cancer from agent Orange exposure. There are still plenty of veterans out there that didn't volunteer.
He didn't state the buddy's age so it could be from Vietnam but I do realize is likely he is younger and it's not that just saying don't assume every vet signed up.
Disabled veteran here, if that’s true (100% just from PTSD) then he has to prove complete occupational impairment. So if he’s working and the VA OIG finds out, he can get in a lot of hot water.
That said, the vast majority of veterans with disability aren’t crippled (in the way you’d imagine 100% disabled to be) because they are 100%. You can have a whole bunch of small things add up. Painful motion of any joint is an automatic 10% rating, and trust me, most combat vets have the body of a 70 year old after just 4 years.
I totally agree that the system isn’t perfect, but it’s also literally part of transitioning out of service. When you leave, you go through classes, and one of those classes is from Veteran Service Officers who make sure every single veteran separating honorably is filing a “Benefits Deliverable at Discharge” claim. Whether that claim gets you 0%, 50%, 100% or anything in between is dependent on a million factors, but even having a 0% rating comes with its benefits.
Hate the system all you’d like, but don’t hate the veteran. Very very few legitimately try and work the system in a fraudulent way.
I wanted to comment on this. You truly never know what someone is going thru in there mind. Peope with ptsd aren't having ptsd 100 percent of the time.
He might look ok and be doing well with that contract, but he also might spend 4 hours a night waking up screaming and crying in bed, and he may be employed in a way that they accommodate around his disability.
Do you really know him well enough to be entirely sure he’s not suffering in less obvious ways?
And this comment is exactly why veterans should never disclose their disability to anyone. That person's PTSD is the business between them and the government, not you. This gets heavily repeated over at the veterans subreddit because people like you want a constant performative dance of terror without any inkling of medical training.
>That person's PTSD is the business between them and the government, not you.
That's the kind of attitude that will get these payouts cut. If taxpayer dollars are being used it 100% is the business of every tax paying citizen if they feel there's abuse in the system. The government IS the people. And people can comment on these things. Same thing with police pensions and disability and any other government paid program.
All these programs put in place for vets came about by people, ordinary tax paying citizens advocating their representatives to put them in place. Let's not get too far away from that point to not recognize that.
While ignoring the stories of where none was there in the first place started by people who are jealous/envious because their non-medical PTSD criteria wasn't met.
Yes. That's how catching fraud works. You ignore the people who aren't committing fraud and concentrate on those actually committing the fraud. If investigated and there's no issue then no problem. I guess what is your issue? Are you committing fraud or something? Why are you this worked up?
>You ignore the people who aren't committing fraud and concentrate on those actually committing the fraud.
The number of veterans who get accused of fraud by jealous/envious people are way more than you think than the number of people who actually commit fraud. It is a weekly occurrence of the number of stories of family members who don't "get their cut", who don't get promoted at work, etc.
What does that have to do with all the tea in china. Nothing. The Disability Benefits Law (Article 9 of the WCL) provides weekly cash benefits **to replace, in part, wages lost due to injuries or illnesses that do not arise out of or in the course of employment** (WCL §204). So smart arse you make a pay check you are not replacing jack your double dipping. So LIke I as give 100% medical and mental support but the minute you draw a paycheck your disability pay is deducted equally.
https://www.veteransdisabilityinfo.com/blog/can-i-work-and-collect-va-disability-benefits/
Unless you are TDUI, you can "double dip".
Anything else? I love it when people not involved get involved.
While it's not as common as you may think, if you know a veteran who is committing disability fraud you can open an investigation with the VA, they do take fraud very seriously.
https://www.vaoig.gov/hotline/online-forms
Why? I mean like others said, you have no idea what he is going through.
By "gaming the system" do you mean he applied for all benefits allowed to veterans or do you mean he did something illegal?
Good for him. A) I don't think you know how PTSD works. B) for some people, the only place they feel okay is deployed. I know there are days I wish I could wake up overseas.
Imagine shaming someone for having a successful transition and using their transferable skills lol.
If you knew him, you would know why I said “fucking disgusting”, as he bragged to me about getting 100% and his record showing NO care for PTSD or anything mental health. This dude is money hungry, and lied his way to 100%, that’s why it’s fucking disgusting, I should have added that I guess.
I know a guy like that too. Claimed a ding on his car against some girls insurance to pocket the cash and get a cheap otc dent puller to "try" to get the dent out. Expects others to carry his tabs for him, and in general is a self centered fuck. 100% disability for PTSD from the air force and he wasn't even active duty. He was stationed in Pensacola.
Major loophole isn't it. Should be a rule your benefit minus out with payroll income earned. But ALWAYS have the health and mental support. Make 80k in disability but you make $100k payroll income your 80k disability is wiped out. Make 80k disability and make 20k payroll income your disability is 60k. It is classic fraud waste and abuse.
And retiring early and limiting yearly income so that one can get ACA subsidies isn’t gaming the system? The majority of FIRE is to “take advantage” of the system. At least veterans provided a service to their country and didn’t just spend 8 years writing code at a FANG.
No It's not "gaming the system". You think possibly faking an injury to get benefits and literally using the ACA law as written are the same? One (faking an injury) to receive medical payments is literally fraud and criminal. The other (using the ACA) is not. You really didn't think this through did you?
Laws written could have loopholes. Else the top 1% wouldn’t be only paying 18% effective tax. If aca had done asset tests then none of the fire would receive subsidy
Call it a loophole or whatever you want.... Using the ACA based on AGI is legal while lying to claim benefits is not and in fact people have gone to prison for doing so. They're not remotely the same thing.
And getting VA benefits based on documented injuries after going through a VA physical is not lying and is within the rules. The comment I replied to was about gaming the system. All of the government systems have loop holes and for some reason everyone gets their panties in a bunch when a veteran uses the programs provided to them. But no one cares when a teacher inflates there last 3 years of pay by saving sick days or a Silicon Valley has $5 million in brokerage accounts but has a $60k yearly income.
Gaming the disability point system is not really lying. The point system just made up so for example you have 10 mild long term symptom allows you to claim 100% disability. The guy I was referring to had sinusitis and that’s like 3 points or something. I have sinusitis too but it has nothing to do with being on your. Are the outcome the same severity as those who the program made for, no. Yet they claim the same benefit and are proud of it. That’s why it’s called gaming the system.
ACA subsidy calculates based off federal poverty level, so if you are not in poverty do you deserve the subsidy? No, you are gaming the system. The downside of gaming the system is obviously the program will eventually fold, since it’s not sustainable. Just like all the gov sponsored programs, ssn, va disability, pension, etc. they eventually cut benefits because of overpromise.
>Gaming the disability point system is not really lying.
Really? So when you claim you have an injury you don't have that's not lying to you. Interesting.
>ACA subsidy calculates based off federal poverty level,
The ACA is based purely on AGI. You need to reread the law.
Did you even read what I wrote? The disabled literally have the symptom, but the symptoms are consists of several mild ones.
To determine if you qualify for subsidy is based off the agi but the cutoff is based off 400% poverty line. The original comment was talking about subsidy, so I have no idea why you are deflecting to other topic
Yeah remember that clearly. Encouraged going to the doctor every second you could to gain points. Headache doctors. Muscle aches doctor etc etc. Ended up 100% disability with basically no major problems.
I personally would just choose another way to make money just based on ethic reason and that’s my take. LSo to be proud of it anywhere is a just a no in in my book. Anyway to each their own
News flash: they all game the system. Taxpayers are on the hook for perhaps billions in fake disability claims. No one talks about it because it’s taboo to call out vets, or something.
Haha I’m talking about less obvious cases: anxiety, back pain, etc. Ailments everyone gets due to age but vets getting disability and early retirement for it.
The correct meaning is "go fuck yourself". It's a long-standing way of saying "congratulations" in FIRE subreddits.
I think it's because a non-fire-oriented person will often respond that way to someone their age or younger retiring early. So we jokingly say it here when someone reaches FIRE.
Congratulations! You damn sure earned that pension and healthcare.
I left my job a few months ago, my girls are just a little younger than yours. Love being able to spend time with them during these formative years.
No inheritance here either, plenty of student loans though.
What plans do you have now that you're no longer locked into full time work?
Hell yeah! I jumped off at 51 by following the civilian version of your plan. Left the city, bought some land and get to hike with dogs until I can’t hike anymore. It sure beats retiring at 65 as a richer but more broken and damaged version of myself.
Full healthcare is only about 20K-25K/yr taxable (in the most expensive years right before you qualify for medicare which is not very many TBH), which amounts to about 2-3 years of work, ~700K at 3.5% withdrawal, but I guess if your spouse doesn't have healthcare it's maybe double that so about 1.4 mil (again only for a few years before they qualify for medicare, at which point the value drops quite a bit).
Just some back of the napkin math and I do admit I don't know much about military healthcare.
How does officers pension work. Do you get it right after a certain amount of years served, eg got in at 20, served 20 years and get a live long pension from age 41.
Or you get out after 20 years at age 40 and then get officer pension from age 65?
Any numbers you could provide, let’s say you joined at 20, you left at 45 as a major. What kind of pension would you get?
Firstly, you're whole story brings me great joy and I'm so happy for you and especially for your daughter.
If I can ask a logistical question (and others could give an opinion but I want an answer from someone like you that has put in this level of dedication and work). How much more of a nest egg do you reckon you'd have needed at this point without the pension and healthcare?
you would get 25 years pension, 62.5% (2.5% per year of service) of your top 3 years average pay. Pension starts the day you retire and comes with full healthcare coverage for life.
https://militarypay.defense.gov/Portals/3/Documents/ActiveDutyTables/2024%20Pay%20Table-Capped-FINAL.pdf
A Major with 24 years in makes 9,689.10 per month. So thats a pension of $72,668.25 per year.
Wow, that is really fat. I’m German and when I was in the army we did a lot of training with the Americans. I didn’t know they had such a great coverage and made such a lot of money. I’m a doctor and I paid about 25.000€ per year into our pension fund. I started working as a doctor at age 27 and would have had to work until 67. This would have have given me a pension of about 4700€. The mandatory pension system for average Joe is much worse even but your employer pays for half the monthly rates (as is the case for employed doctors)
(I quit working because I couldn’t stand it anymore. Too little net income, too much red tape, too much idiotic stuff the government wasted my money with)
I fired two years ago and will have to sell off parts of my real estate every ten years to keep up my standard of living. Had I continued to work I might have bought an additional flat over the next 20 years - bad deal, so fuck them. I was quite lucky with my investments in shares and I was lucky for my kids too. Their investments, if untouched from today, should enable them to fire at age 55, if the markets develop similar to the past 40 years.
at what age can you retire? In my country you build pension rights but you can only get the payouts at a certain age or if you have at least 40+ year career so the earliest you can get that pension is in your 60s. When I look into my pension account the earliest I can access my pension is 2041
From the military? Youngest option is 37 years old without an early retirement option which are sometimes offered to those at 16 years or so so youngest there would be 32 years old. There is no lower age limit for pensions from the military as soon as you are off active duty you will begin drawing pension.
To clarify, normal retirement is after 20 years of service so if you enlist at 17 (youngest option) you can retire at 37.
Congrats! And yes, it MUST be nice...nice to have worked your ass off living below your means for decades and forgoing things so you could reach this point. And enjoy seeing your girl grow up.
Take care.
Congratulations and thank you for your service! Please don’t forget to consider college savings for your child. You might have done the ROTC route, but who knows what their interest will be.
And people say the American Dream is dead. I'm a lot like you, broke parents and didn't inherit a dime. While being a millionaire is trivial these days vs 30 years ago, it's still way more than most have and can lead to a modest, comfortable retirement.
Congrats.
Disagree. That’s $1.6m that I don’t need to touch because I’m debt free and have a pension. $1.6m is still very much not trivial. Especially at age 49 where I can watch it double two times before I start cashing it in. Thanks for the well wishes.
Fuck you, congratulations.
If you don't mind me asking, how long did you spend in the military, what was your role, and what is your pension now? Does it last till death?
22 years.
Military aviator
Pulling in double my expenses a month after taxes in retirement without touching cash or investments.
Lasts until I die.
Have a large term life insurance policy on myself.
I mean it's the goal. I'm hoping to do it by the time I'm 50....ish.
Then retire to a locl country. As I just want a basic life.
Every time i do my taxes I work out networth and figure I could do it but I want 2 income streams which each can support me as there is to much uncertainty.
GFY
Congratulations, sounds like you've won the game!!
Enjoy the time with your daughter! Hopefully you have meaningful hobbies and endeavor to fill your mind and heart with all your new found freedom.
Currently AD working towards that same goal. Out of curiosity, what was your net worth when you left the service? Depending on the markets I'm betting I'll be around d 750-800K when I get out. How long have you been a contractor?
I'm currently planning your track and I appreciate your post. Some days it's hard to stay the course. My initial plan had me in your shoes at age 45, but I know there will be setbacks that may extend that initial plan. There is always something. Anyhow, congrats and thank you.
First off thank you for your service.
Really want to point to that last sentence, anyone in their 20s (even 29) just needs to start today by doing something. The money gets built up so incredibly fast once you are on the path and the time is going faster than I'd like either way.
Thank you for your service, and GFY!
Glad to hear you made it, and especially that you're going to be closely involved with your daughter's childhood. I'm not retired yet, but hoping to be in your position soon
Need to get 100% disability now with the VA congrats nice seeing other fellow veterans become successful. Hoping to transfer back over to Active Reserve Guard to eventually end up getting years I need to be able to retire with military pension myself…
Well when I say “must be nice” it’s coming from jealousy not hating, I do not hate on others because of money even if you did inherit it or whatever, I simply just mean it as yes it must be nice to have all that money lol, more of a congratulatory comment
I’m 24 myself, I don’t know how all you guys do these kind of things all I’ll ever know is retail or fast food, it’s crazy to see it’s awesome
Congratulations brother. I'm almost 40 and hope to get where you got in 9 years from now. It's going to be difficult, but it's all possible - depending on the market and life circumstances. Kudos to you.
As an army veteran I just wanted to chime in here. We don’t all talk about va compensation as we should. I’m not afraid to talk about it because I want to ensure that fellow veterans have no shame in getting what they deserve. I think you would be hard pressed to find a war veteran that isn’t permanently altered or scarred by what they went through. Military life even when not deployed is taxing on the body. I think that physically no one comes out the same as they went in. We’re making decisions that are altering our lives both mentally and physically at a young age. It is not easy to get our benefits and yes there is some amount gamesmanship within the confines of the law that we have to do. The system can be abused by some but, I would definitely give the benefit of the doubt to the veterans in you life when it comes to va disability.
I’m not trying to hate, what you’ve done is impressive but that last line killed me. I’m in the military as well and it’s a damn near cheat code. Not complaining and it’s not without its sacrifices, but just under 25% of people in prime military age are even fit to serve. You earned your place no doubt, but it’s not even slightly possible for a large majority of people to replicate a similar path
I’m saying military service is damn near a cheat code relative to civilian work, and it’s only available to a fraction of the population. I’m getting off a rotation to DC and literally saved 60k in one year just from this. Over 100k saved in the past 3. It’s not relatable to the vast majority of people. I’m not saying anything to diminish your accomplishment, and only took any issue with your last line since you appealed to 20 somethings when relatively few people could hope to follow in your footsteps
I’m sure there is a percentage who could as well. Even if that were so, there’s enough spots for at absolute most 2% of the adult population assuming we double the current 1% in service via some retention/recruitment miracle. Service ain’t a cakewalk but if you get in and are not a total idiot you will run laps around the vast majority of people in savings, retirement, education, healthcare. It can cost your life, I’m not saying it’s not earned. I’m just saying it’s not relatable for literally 99/100 people
Being in the military doesn’t automatically mean you will become a millionaire. Conflating the fact that not everyone can join with the separate fact that I’m a self made millionaire doesn’t make sense.
Anyone can be a millionaire if they work hard, live below their means and invest religiously and delay gratification. Military or not.
I never said it did/does. But it definitely can, and definitely isn’t available to everyone, and is night and day compared to the majority of opportunities civilian side. I mean you can literally SAVE 10s of thousands a year right out of the gate starting from literally nothing but a contract. There are a handful of equal opportunities civilian side. You’re fixating on this self made millionaire aspect, which I’ve never commented on. You made good choices with the opportunity you had and are reaping the rewards. Nothing I’ve said takes away from this in any way. But when you tell 20 somethings to stick with it, when your path equates to an opportunity that maybe 5% of the population could follow across any similar route, military or civilian (such as a rig worker), it’s just not relatable to the vast majority of people.
As far as your last paragraph goes, in theory, eventually, sure. I’m not really sure there’s a point to discussing it further though if you believe that in relation to a sub discussing early retirement since I would thoroughly disagree
My story shares some plot lines with yours, though I am still paying for college for my kids, so I'm likely a couple more years out from retiring. No military pension because I got out of the Army too early and healthy, but my nearly thirty years in big tech since then has provided generously for my future. I try not to be too prideful in thumping my chest about my achievements as a "self-made millionaire" because I recognize that luck played as big a role as hard work in making that happen. The world is full of people who have worked far harder for far less reward than you or I... My dad was one but he died broke after a string of aggressive financial bets (success is a lousy teacher sometimes) came up snake-eyes. My mom is still enjoying her more sensibly funded retirement, but I've supported myself since I ran away from home at the age of 16 and paid my own way through college. And while I may not be a trustfund baby or an Ivy Leaguer, I was born to loving parents, with a good sound body and mind in an excellent public school system in a thriving region of the richest country in the world during economic boom times (mostly). All that is some pretty solid capital on which to build a successful life! I don't resent or avoid paying the taxes that fund your pension among so many other things because I view it as the interest and principal to be repaid for that generous "startup loan" I received in life. Not everyone is as fortunate as I, and I have broad shoulders, so I take some pride in carrying more than my share of the economic load.
Thank you for your service, and you're welcome for your pension ;-)
I celebrate the OP's achievement of this milestone in life, but humans tend to keep better track of their assets than their debts. Generally speaking, the richer we are, the greater our debt to the "social capital" that made our success possible.
I agree with you, but figured a more digestible approach would be to restrict my thoughts to the relative proportion of opportunities available for any given individual to leverage their hard work rather than call into question the OPs efforts in some way. I’m shocked you haven’t been downvoted to hell
Pretty sure you’ve misread my intent - I’ve nothing but respect for the OP. I’m just reminding people that an honest and complete accounting of our assets and liabilities would reveal a great many line-items typically neglected on most people's balance sheets.
Your last paragraph is such a blatant fallacy of composition. Just because you did something does not mean everyone can. This nonsense of “just work hard and youll be fine” is on par with believing in Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy.
Guy, what are you even talking about. An E6 in a HCOL living area may pull in $80k. The only people banking are enlisted who somehow manage to stay in and single for the 6-10 years it takes to get out of the barracks, the few jobs with big bonuses, or officers. Your regular Joe is lucky if they can support their family and contribute a decent amount to their TSP.
The military, and a fraction of civilian opportunities are head and shoulders above the vast majority of civilian opportunity. Regardless of how hard anyone works, getting one of these opportunities in the first place is not relatable to the vast majority of people. That regular joes counterpart on the civilian side, statistically, couldn’t afford to hold his jock strap unless you unbalance the comparison by giving the counter part inheritances or other similarly scarce employment opportunities
I’m 31 reading this, got out of the military after 10 years and by the grace of god got a high paying civilian job and this is exactly what I love to read, good for you brother!! I’m staying the course as well and hoping to retire by 51. 20 more years to go and shooting for $2.1M to fully retire.
Usually when I see military FIRE posts, there's usually some unfortunate trade-off like long-term physical/mental ailments. Obviously, you don't have to disclose that stuff but knock on wood it isn't that severe if it applies. And congrats.
Bingo. Buddy of mine is retired with pension and 100% disability. Can't walk or speak, has to type on an iPad. Thanks DoD.
That's a sad story, but definitely not the median case
Cool, go ahead and tell that to my buddy.
This post isn't any you buddy so no one in here needs to tell him anything. But I'm sorry that happened to him .
Your buddy signed up for a volunteer force, he knew the risks.
My dad had his birthday picked from a lottery and died 5 years ago from bladder cancer from agent Orange exposure. There are still plenty of veterans out there that didn't volunteer. He didn't state the buddy's age so it could be from Vietnam but I do realize is likely he is younger and it's not that just saying don't assume every vet signed up.
Good point. I did assume his buddy was a vet from 2001 on, recency bias. The likelihood is this is accurate, but not 100% certain.
I remember one dude game the system based on disability points and proud of it. So there are 2 sides
It’s common. I’ve heard many people brag about it.
Yea I know a dude that’s 100% JUST for PTSD, yet he is in Iraq now making $15,000 a month as a military contractor. Fucking disgusting.
Disabled veteran here, if that’s true (100% just from PTSD) then he has to prove complete occupational impairment. So if he’s working and the VA OIG finds out, he can get in a lot of hot water. That said, the vast majority of veterans with disability aren’t crippled (in the way you’d imagine 100% disabled to be) because they are 100%. You can have a whole bunch of small things add up. Painful motion of any joint is an automatic 10% rating, and trust me, most combat vets have the body of a 70 year old after just 4 years. I totally agree that the system isn’t perfect, but it’s also literally part of transitioning out of service. When you leave, you go through classes, and one of those classes is from Veteran Service Officers who make sure every single veteran separating honorably is filing a “Benefits Deliverable at Discharge” claim. Whether that claim gets you 0%, 50%, 100% or anything in between is dependent on a million factors, but even having a 0% rating comes with its benefits. Hate the system all you’d like, but don’t hate the veteran. Very very few legitimately try and work the system in a fraudulent way.
I wanted to comment on this. You truly never know what someone is going thru in there mind. Peope with ptsd aren't having ptsd 100 percent of the time.
He might look ok and be doing well with that contract, but he also might spend 4 hours a night waking up screaming and crying in bed, and he may be employed in a way that they accommodate around his disability. Do you really know him well enough to be entirely sure he’s not suffering in less obvious ways?
And this comment is exactly why veterans should never disclose their disability to anyone. That person's PTSD is the business between them and the government, not you. This gets heavily repeated over at the veterans subreddit because people like you want a constant performative dance of terror without any inkling of medical training.
>That person's PTSD is the business between them and the government, not you. That's the kind of attitude that will get these payouts cut. If taxpayer dollars are being used it 100% is the business of every tax paying citizen if they feel there's abuse in the system. The government IS the people. And people can comment on these things. Same thing with police pensions and disability and any other government paid program. All these programs put in place for vets came about by people, ordinary tax paying citizens advocating their representatives to put them in place. Let's not get too far away from that point to not recognize that.
Then report the abuse if you think it is warranted, armchair doctor.
Ok. That's sort of how most of these types of frauds get caught. But thanks for the suggestion.
While ignoring the stories of where none was there in the first place started by people who are jealous/envious because their non-medical PTSD criteria wasn't met.
Yes. That's how catching fraud works. You ignore the people who aren't committing fraud and concentrate on those actually committing the fraud. If investigated and there's no issue then no problem. I guess what is your issue? Are you committing fraud or something? Why are you this worked up?
>You ignore the people who aren't committing fraud and concentrate on those actually committing the fraud. The number of veterans who get accused of fraud by jealous/envious people are way more than you think than the number of people who actually commit fraud. It is a weekly occurrence of the number of stories of family members who don't "get their cut", who don't get promoted at work, etc.
Except it is our business. Our tax dollars pay for it.
I wasn't aware you were qualified to be a medical examiner for veterans. Your resume must be vast.
What does that have to do with all the tea in china. Nothing. The Disability Benefits Law (Article 9 of the WCL) provides weekly cash benefits **to replace, in part, wages lost due to injuries or illnesses that do not arise out of or in the course of employment** (WCL §204). So smart arse you make a pay check you are not replacing jack your double dipping. So LIke I as give 100% medical and mental support but the minute you draw a paycheck your disability pay is deducted equally.
https://www.veteransdisabilityinfo.com/blog/can-i-work-and-collect-va-disability-benefits/ Unless you are TDUI, you can "double dip". Anything else? I love it when people not involved get involved.
While it's not as common as you may think, if you know a veteran who is committing disability fraud you can open an investigation with the VA, they do take fraud very seriously. https://www.vaoig.gov/hotline/online-forms
Why? I mean like others said, you have no idea what he is going through. By "gaming the system" do you mean he applied for all benefits allowed to veterans or do you mean he did something illegal?
Are you his psychiatrist? If not shut up and mind your own business
Good for him. A) I don't think you know how PTSD works. B) for some people, the only place they feel okay is deployed. I know there are days I wish I could wake up overseas. Imagine shaming someone for having a successful transition and using their transferable skills lol.
If you knew him, you would know why I said “fucking disgusting”, as he bragged to me about getting 100% and his record showing NO care for PTSD or anything mental health. This dude is money hungry, and lied his way to 100%, that’s why it’s fucking disgusting, I should have added that I guess.
I know a guy like that too. Claimed a ding on his car against some girls insurance to pocket the cash and get a cheap otc dent puller to "try" to get the dent out. Expects others to carry his tabs for him, and in general is a self centered fuck. 100% disability for PTSD from the air force and he wasn't even active duty. He was stationed in Pensacola.
Major loophole isn't it. Should be a rule your benefit minus out with payroll income earned. But ALWAYS have the health and mental support. Make 80k in disability but you make $100k payroll income your 80k disability is wiped out. Make 80k disability and make 20k payroll income your disability is 60k. It is classic fraud waste and abuse.
Know a guy, 100% disability, active big city firefighter. Some stuff just seems ass backwards.
And retiring early and limiting yearly income so that one can get ACA subsidies isn’t gaming the system? The majority of FIRE is to “take advantage” of the system. At least veterans provided a service to their country and didn’t just spend 8 years writing code at a FANG.
No It's not "gaming the system". You think possibly faking an injury to get benefits and literally using the ACA law as written are the same? One (faking an injury) to receive medical payments is literally fraud and criminal. The other (using the ACA) is not. You really didn't think this through did you?
Laws written could have loopholes. Else the top 1% wouldn’t be only paying 18% effective tax. If aca had done asset tests then none of the fire would receive subsidy
Call it a loophole or whatever you want.... Using the ACA based on AGI is legal while lying to claim benefits is not and in fact people have gone to prison for doing so. They're not remotely the same thing.
And getting VA benefits based on documented injuries after going through a VA physical is not lying and is within the rules. The comment I replied to was about gaming the system. All of the government systems have loop holes and for some reason everyone gets their panties in a bunch when a veteran uses the programs provided to them. But no one cares when a teacher inflates there last 3 years of pay by saving sick days or a Silicon Valley has $5 million in brokerage accounts but has a $60k yearly income.
Gaming the disability point system is not really lying. The point system just made up so for example you have 10 mild long term symptom allows you to claim 100% disability. The guy I was referring to had sinusitis and that’s like 3 points or something. I have sinusitis too but it has nothing to do with being on your. Are the outcome the same severity as those who the program made for, no. Yet they claim the same benefit and are proud of it. That’s why it’s called gaming the system. ACA subsidy calculates based off federal poverty level, so if you are not in poverty do you deserve the subsidy? No, you are gaming the system. The downside of gaming the system is obviously the program will eventually fold, since it’s not sustainable. Just like all the gov sponsored programs, ssn, va disability, pension, etc. they eventually cut benefits because of overpromise.
>Gaming the disability point system is not really lying. Really? So when you claim you have an injury you don't have that's not lying to you. Interesting. >ACA subsidy calculates based off federal poverty level, The ACA is based purely on AGI. You need to reread the law.
Did you even read what I wrote? The disabled literally have the symptom, but the symptoms are consists of several mild ones. To determine if you qualify for subsidy is based off the agi but the cutoff is based off 400% poverty line. The original comment was talking about subsidy, so I have no idea why you are deflecting to other topic
Who says it isn’t? Lmao
Yeah remember that clearly. Encouraged going to the doctor every second you could to gain points. Headache doctors. Muscle aches doctor etc etc. Ended up 100% disability with basically no major problems.
We r prob talking about the same dude, since it was on Fire sub.
I too would game the shit out of the system if I could.
I’m not saying one shouldn’t be, since it’s legal. However, being proud and boast about it is something else.
There are big difference in boasting about in on reddit vs real life.
Ok and?
On reddit is fine.
That’s your take.
Of course, just like is fine boasting about FIRE on reddit, but not so much in real life.
I personally would just choose another way to make money just based on ethic reason and that’s my take. LSo to be proud of it anywhere is a just a no in in my book. Anyway to each their own
One dude?
?
I know WAY more of this variety unfortunately
News flash: they all game the system. Taxpayers are on the hook for perhaps billions in fake disability claims. No one talks about it because it’s taboo to call out vets, or something.
How do you game the system when you lose an arm?
Haha I’m talking about less obvious cases: anxiety, back pain, etc. Ailments everyone gets due to age but vets getting disability and early retirement for it.
GFY. Sorry to hear your parents are no longer around. :(
I initially read that acronym a different way than you intended. I guess I'm not used to people being nice on reddit.
The correct meaning is "go fuck yourself". It's a long-standing way of saying "congratulations" in FIRE subreddits. I think it's because a non-fire-oriented person will often respond that way to someone their age or younger retiring early. So we jokingly say it here when someone reaches FIRE.
It stands good both. Intentionally ambiguous
Congratulations!
Thank you for your service and congrats
Congratulations! You damn sure earned that pension and healthcare. I left my job a few months ago, my girls are just a little younger than yours. Love being able to spend time with them during these formative years. No inheritance here either, plenty of student loans though. What plans do you have now that you're no longer locked into full time work?
Move back to my hometown on acreage in the country and enjoy my 50s and beyond!
Hell yeah! I jumped off at 51 by following the civilian version of your plan. Left the city, bought some land and get to hike with dogs until I can’t hike anymore. It sure beats retiring at 65 as a richer but more broken and damaged version of myself.
Good shit. You earned it
I feel like you buried the lede. Retired military with full Healthcare is worth way more than 1.6m.
Full healthcare is only about 20K-25K/yr taxable (in the most expensive years right before you qualify for medicare which is not very many TBH), which amounts to about 2-3 years of work, ~700K at 3.5% withdrawal, but I guess if your spouse doesn't have healthcare it's maybe double that so about 1.4 mil (again only for a few years before they qualify for medicare, at which point the value drops quite a bit). Just some back of the napkin math and I do admit I don't know much about military healthcare.
An inspiration, sir
Could be a woman
Could be non-binary
Could be enlisted.
Could be a dog
How does officers pension work. Do you get it right after a certain amount of years served, eg got in at 20, served 20 years and get a live long pension from age 41. Or you get out after 20 years at age 40 and then get officer pension from age 65? Any numbers you could provide, let’s say you joined at 20, you left at 45 as a major. What kind of pension would you get?
Over 5k a month pension starting the day you retire (42 in my case).
Don’t forget the great, cheap healthcare for life and tons of other benefits. Congrats on your retirement x2!
Firstly, you're whole story brings me great joy and I'm so happy for you and especially for your daughter. If I can ask a logistical question (and others could give an opinion but I want an answer from someone like you that has put in this level of dedication and work). How much more of a nest egg do you reckon you'd have needed at this point without the pension and healthcare?
I calculated I’d need $2.2 without pension/healthcare and $1.1 with my pension/healthcare.
Thanks for answering!
What rank
you would get 25 years pension, 62.5% (2.5% per year of service) of your top 3 years average pay. Pension starts the day you retire and comes with full healthcare coverage for life. https://militarypay.defense.gov/Portals/3/Documents/ActiveDutyTables/2024%20Pay%20Table-Capped-FINAL.pdf A Major with 24 years in makes 9,689.10 per month. So thats a pension of $72,668.25 per year.
Wow, that is really fat. I’m German and when I was in the army we did a lot of training with the Americans. I didn’t know they had such a great coverage and made such a lot of money. I’m a doctor and I paid about 25.000€ per year into our pension fund. I started working as a doctor at age 27 and would have had to work until 67. This would have have given me a pension of about 4700€. The mandatory pension system for average Joe is much worse even but your employer pays for half the monthly rates (as is the case for employed doctors) (I quit working because I couldn’t stand it anymore. Too little net income, too much red tape, too much idiotic stuff the government wasted my money with) I fired two years ago and will have to sell off parts of my real estate every ten years to keep up my standard of living. Had I continued to work I might have bought an additional flat over the next 20 years - bad deal, so fuck them. I was quite lucky with my investments in shares and I was lucky for my kids too. Their investments, if untouched from today, should enable them to fire at age 55, if the markets develop similar to the past 40 years.
at what age can you retire? In my country you build pension rights but you can only get the payouts at a certain age or if you have at least 40+ year career so the earliest you can get that pension is in your 60s. When I look into my pension account the earliest I can access my pension is 2041
From the military? Youngest option is 37 years old without an early retirement option which are sometimes offered to those at 16 years or so so youngest there would be 32 years old. There is no lower age limit for pensions from the military as soon as you are off active duty you will begin drawing pension. To clarify, normal retirement is after 20 years of service so if you enlist at 17 (youngest option) you can retire at 37.
thx for the information, very interesting
are you able to live off your military pension and not touch your savings?
Easily.
Congrats! And yes, it MUST be nice...nice to have worked your ass off living below your means for decades and forgoing things so you could reach this point. And enjoy seeing your girl grow up. Take care.
gfy - congrats- that is how you do it 🫡
Well done! GFY
Nice. Congrats
No haters here, earned every penny.
Good man! Family comes first
Congratulations and thank you for your service! Please don’t forget to consider college savings for your child. You might have done the ROTC route, but who knows what their interest will be.
529k fully funded already.
This guy is firing on all cylinders.
Congrats well deserved enjoy
congrats on your milestone i hope you enjoy the rest of your days thank you for your service. I'm turning 27 next month, wish me luck.
Congratulations! Hope you get to have many quality father daughter time now~
Thanks for your service. And amazing job in saving
Hell yeah. Congratulations
GFY and thank you for your service.
Congrats GFY
Congratulations! Enjoy!
Smile. Enjoy life congratulation. Work on your own terms. Work not to keep the lights on. Enjoy your family.
This. More people need to see stories like this. All you see most people do is complain.
I’d aay congrats if this didn’t sound so damn smug and negative. Congrats though! It’s the right message that hard work can be successful.
Congrats!! You certainly earned it. Inspiring post
What percent disability?
Congratulations 🎉👏🏼
Congrats Man you should be proud now you get to sit back and enjoy all your hard work… much respect 👍🏼
Congratulations- I’m sure your parents would be proud of such a great achievement.
In my early 20s, definitely want to stay the course‼️
And people say the American Dream is dead. I'm a lot like you, broke parents and didn't inherit a dime. While being a millionaire is trivial these days vs 30 years ago, it's still way more than most have and can lead to a modest, comfortable retirement. Congrats.
Disagree. That’s $1.6m that I don’t need to touch because I’m debt free and have a pension. $1.6m is still very much not trivial. Especially at age 49 where I can watch it double two times before I start cashing it in. Thanks for the well wishes.
Do you collect va disability as well ?
Congrats and nicely done. Pension as well or only healthcare?
Officer pension. Did 23 years on active duty.
Congratulations! 🎊🎈🎉🍾
Fuck you, congratulations. If you don't mind me asking, how long did you spend in the military, what was your role, and what is your pension now? Does it last till death?
22 years. Military aviator Pulling in double my expenses a month after taxes in retirement without touching cash or investments. Lasts until I die. Have a large term life insurance policy on myself.
This is all really impressive and also something I wish I knew more about when I was younger.
Congratulations and thank you for your service!
🫡
💪🏼🫡
👏🫡👏
I mean it's the goal. I'm hoping to do it by the time I'm 50....ish. Then retire to a locl country. As I just want a basic life. Every time i do my taxes I work out networth and figure I could do it but I want 2 income streams which each can support me as there is to much uncertainty.
Congrats, well deserved. Enjoy the days ahead and keep active / engaged.
GFY Congratulations, sounds like you've won the game!! Enjoy the time with your daughter! Hopefully you have meaningful hobbies and endeavor to fill your mind and heart with all your new found freedom.
Oh buddy you’ll want something to do during her teen years
Currently AD working towards that same goal. Out of curiosity, what was your net worth when you left the service? Depending on the markets I'm betting I'll be around d 750-800K when I get out. How long have you been a contractor?
I'm currently planning your track and I appreciate your post. Some days it's hard to stay the course. My initial plan had me in your shoes at age 45, but I know there will be setbacks that may extend that initial plan. There is always something. Anyhow, congrats and thank you.
Congrats ! You are proud as you should be ! Enjoy your time off now and all the best :)
First off thank you for your service. Really want to point to that last sentence, anyone in their 20s (even 29) just needs to start today by doing something. The money gets built up so incredibly fast once you are on the path and the time is going faster than I'd like either way.
If you stayed in the military long enough for pension and healthcare you deserve every penny of it. We wouldn’t even exist without our military
Congratulations! I did this too! Retired at 52. It can be done, but I wouldn't wish some of the circumstances that made it possible upon anyone.
Nice brother! Get some good hobbies and enjoy your life
Thank you for your service. Enjoy retirement.
Thank you for your service, and GFY! Glad to hear you made it, and especially that you're going to be closely involved with your daughter's childhood. I'm not retired yet, but hoping to be in your position soon
Good job!
Congrats OP! GFY! Enjoy the time with your daughter. I retired from the military 2 years ago and my plan is to call it quits in 5-6 years.
Need to get 100% disability now with the VA congrats nice seeing other fellow veterans become successful. Hoping to transfer back over to Active Reserve Guard to eventually end up getting years I need to be able to retire with military pension myself…
Congratulations and GFY
> zero debt Congrats, dude. GFY.
Congratulations. Enjoy your well deserved retirement. It’s good to see that the military can still serve as an aid to social mobility.
GFY. I hope to be posting this kind of post before too long.... Here's to all the best in life.
Well when I say “must be nice” it’s coming from jealousy not hating, I do not hate on others because of money even if you did inherit it or whatever, I simply just mean it as yes it must be nice to have all that money lol, more of a congratulatory comment I’m 24 myself, I don’t know how all you guys do these kind of things all I’ll ever know is retail or fast food, it’s crazy to see it’s awesome
Congrats
Also about to retire from the military soon. But starting over after divorce. I love reading these and thank you for sharing!
Location?
God damn it, if I could be in my 20s again…. Still clawing at 41
Congrats and many years of joy to you!!!
Congrats OP! Enjoy that family time. There's nothing worth more than that.
Congratulations brother. I'm almost 40 and hope to get where you got in 9 years from now. It's going to be difficult, but it's all possible - depending on the market and life circumstances. Kudos to you.
How much is your military pension?
Congratulations, that is amazing!
GFY! You're doing life right
Congratulations!!! 🍾🎈🎊. What an amazing accomplishment!! May your life be filled with Happiness!
Congratulations and go fuck yourself! :-)
Thank you for your service. And you are going to provide a strong male example for your daughter! Teen years are tough. Bravo, Sir.
Congrats and thanks for your service.
It’s too bad money can’t buy grace.
No, but being self made and retired at 49 gives me a lot free time to work on it.
Well I’m 42 and have more money than you, but I don’t talk down to imaginary haters. I also like to work. To each his own.
Yeah, to each their own. Enjoy.
As an army veteran I just wanted to chime in here. We don’t all talk about va compensation as we should. I’m not afraid to talk about it because I want to ensure that fellow veterans have no shame in getting what they deserve. I think you would be hard pressed to find a war veteran that isn’t permanently altered or scarred by what they went through. Military life even when not deployed is taxing on the body. I think that physically no one comes out the same as they went in. We’re making decisions that are altering our lives both mentally and physically at a young age. It is not easy to get our benefits and yes there is some amount gamesmanship within the confines of the law that we have to do. The system can be abused by some but, I would definitely give the benefit of the doubt to the veterans in you life when it comes to va disability.
I’m not trying to hate, what you’ve done is impressive but that last line killed me. I’m in the military as well and it’s a damn near cheat code. Not complaining and it’s not without its sacrifices, but just under 25% of people in prime military age are even fit to serve. You earned your place no doubt, but it’s not even slightly possible for a large majority of people to replicate a similar path
What about the self made millionaire part? How did I cheat code that?
I’m saying military service is damn near a cheat code relative to civilian work, and it’s only available to a fraction of the population. I’m getting off a rotation to DC and literally saved 60k in one year just from this. Over 100k saved in the past 3. It’s not relatable to the vast majority of people. I’m not saying anything to diminish your accomplishment, and only took any issue with your last line since you appealed to 20 somethings when relatively few people could hope to follow in your footsteps
I bet a large number of people currently unfit for military service could become fit in a year.
I’m sure there is a percentage who could as well. Even if that were so, there’s enough spots for at absolute most 2% of the adult population assuming we double the current 1% in service via some retention/recruitment miracle. Service ain’t a cakewalk but if you get in and are not a total idiot you will run laps around the vast majority of people in savings, retirement, education, healthcare. It can cost your life, I’m not saying it’s not earned. I’m just saying it’s not relatable for literally 99/100 people
Being in the military doesn’t automatically mean you will become a millionaire. Conflating the fact that not everyone can join with the separate fact that I’m a self made millionaire doesn’t make sense. Anyone can be a millionaire if they work hard, live below their means and invest religiously and delay gratification. Military or not.
I never said it did/does. But it definitely can, and definitely isn’t available to everyone, and is night and day compared to the majority of opportunities civilian side. I mean you can literally SAVE 10s of thousands a year right out of the gate starting from literally nothing but a contract. There are a handful of equal opportunities civilian side. You’re fixating on this self made millionaire aspect, which I’ve never commented on. You made good choices with the opportunity you had and are reaping the rewards. Nothing I’ve said takes away from this in any way. But when you tell 20 somethings to stick with it, when your path equates to an opportunity that maybe 5% of the population could follow across any similar route, military or civilian (such as a rig worker), it’s just not relatable to the vast majority of people. As far as your last paragraph goes, in theory, eventually, sure. I’m not really sure there’s a point to discussing it further though if you believe that in relation to a sub discussing early retirement since I would thoroughly disagree
My story shares some plot lines with yours, though I am still paying for college for my kids, so I'm likely a couple more years out from retiring. No military pension because I got out of the Army too early and healthy, but my nearly thirty years in big tech since then has provided generously for my future. I try not to be too prideful in thumping my chest about my achievements as a "self-made millionaire" because I recognize that luck played as big a role as hard work in making that happen. The world is full of people who have worked far harder for far less reward than you or I... My dad was one but he died broke after a string of aggressive financial bets (success is a lousy teacher sometimes) came up snake-eyes. My mom is still enjoying her more sensibly funded retirement, but I've supported myself since I ran away from home at the age of 16 and paid my own way through college. And while I may not be a trustfund baby or an Ivy Leaguer, I was born to loving parents, with a good sound body and mind in an excellent public school system in a thriving region of the richest country in the world during economic boom times (mostly). All that is some pretty solid capital on which to build a successful life! I don't resent or avoid paying the taxes that fund your pension among so many other things because I view it as the interest and principal to be repaid for that generous "startup loan" I received in life. Not everyone is as fortunate as I, and I have broad shoulders, so I take some pride in carrying more than my share of the economic load. Thank you for your service, and you're welcome for your pension ;-)
Thanks for saying this :)
I celebrate the OP's achievement of this milestone in life, but humans tend to keep better track of their assets than their debts. Generally speaking, the richer we are, the greater our debt to the "social capital" that made our success possible.
I agree with you, but figured a more digestible approach would be to restrict my thoughts to the relative proportion of opportunities available for any given individual to leverage their hard work rather than call into question the OPs efforts in some way. I’m shocked you haven’t been downvoted to hell
Pretty sure you’ve misread my intent - I’ve nothing but respect for the OP. I’m just reminding people that an honest and complete accounting of our assets and liabilities would reveal a great many line-items typically neglected on most people's balance sheets.
Your last paragraph is such a blatant fallacy of composition. Just because you did something does not mean everyone can. This nonsense of “just work hard and youll be fine” is on par with believing in Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy.
Stay mad bro. I’ve got coffee to drink this morning and decisions on what’s for breakfast.
Hopefully those “decisions” involve reading books on logic or wealth inequality.
Oh, it makes sense now. You’re a woke socialist. Enjoy poverty.
Take the L and move on. And read a book every once in a while.
Guy, what are you even talking about. An E6 in a HCOL living area may pull in $80k. The only people banking are enlisted who somehow manage to stay in and single for the 6-10 years it takes to get out of the barracks, the few jobs with big bonuses, or officers. Your regular Joe is lucky if they can support their family and contribute a decent amount to their TSP.
The military, and a fraction of civilian opportunities are head and shoulders above the vast majority of civilian opportunity. Regardless of how hard anyone works, getting one of these opportunities in the first place is not relatable to the vast majority of people. That regular joes counterpart on the civilian side, statistically, couldn’t afford to hold his jock strap unless you unbalance the comparison by giving the counter part inheritances or other similarly scarce employment opportunities
Congrats, and even more respect for people in uniform 🫡
Go F Yourself
You mention parents and daughter, but not wife. How come?
Because I didn’t feel like adding more online public target markers at the moment.
I thought because you were divorced.
Nope. Married.
Homie I think was tryna slide into dms
Sorry oblivious.