Anything going on with out military families?

**guest002** · 09-12-2009, 04:35 PM

Just checking in...

We're still in California. Will have a lot a waiting going on over the next few months to see if we'll be staying or moving or if dh will have a long tour away from us coming up.

**McD** · 09-12-2009, 04:49 PM

DH just got promoted to E-6. His unit is gearing up for a deployment this summer, however, however, depending on how deployment dates fall, there is a chance he may not be required to go due to the military getting rid of the stop-loss provision and when his ets date falls. ( I totally missed when that happened?)

He ets's in September 2011, and at that point will have 12 years in. We are doing a lot of talking and family-wise, as well as his civilian career wise, it may be best for DH to not re-enlist in the Army Guard. We are exploring the Air Guard as a way for DH to finish up the last 8 he needs to get his full 20, ensuring him a military retirement.

**guest002** · 09-12-2009, 07:59 PM

Does the Air Guard and Army Guard do the same thing retirement wise for time required? I know we looked at going from Active Duty to Air Guard or AF Reserve and it was so different the way they calculated your years to retirement. Just make sure he gets the real numbers before he makes his decision.

And congrats on the promotion!

**Nishu** · 09-12-2009, 08:32 PM

Congratulations on the promotion to Mr MrsMcDowell! Good luck with your upcoming decisions...

Not much going on here, military-wise. He has another 2 years left on his obligation and at least a year left at this duty station. I did ask around and get the official paperwork for our bonuses, because up until now it's all been entirely word of mouth and almost entirely wrong.

I had assumed that our bonuses work the same as re enlistment bonuses, and that as you near retirement you lose them. Turns out, he can keep getting them until several years after he's eligible for retirement. That was a nice surprise.

Have any of you actually crunched the numbers as far as retiring? My husband will have 10 years in soon, and if all goes as planned he should at least retire as o4. Retirement pay is half of the base pay you retired at, right? So we're looking at 3300 a month. At the time, we'll have 2 in college and one starting high school. Considering the fact that we'll probably be living in either Texas or the midwest, I think we'll be able to live on that if we want to. Unless we get stupid between now and then, we should either own a home already or be able to pay cash for one.

Can you tell I've been thinking about this a lot lately? I know it's super tacky to talk about all this, but my husband is sick of hearing about it and we're all friends here, right?

**McD** · 09-12-2009, 09:09 PM

I haven't actually done any number crunching with the retirement plans yet. The way the Guard works, Hubby will have his 20 in by the time he is 38, at which point he will 'retire'. He won't actually get to draw his retirement pay until his mid-60's but by then, we'll have his police pension, his Guard retirement, my pension, and our own retirement savings.

We haven't done much checking on how his time will transfer, mainly because his ets is still 2 years away. As far as we have been told, it should work okay. I hope so anyways!

**guest002** · 09-14-2009, 10:29 PM

Well, we're actually hoping not to do the 20 year retirement but closer to the 27 or 27+ year retirement and then my dh claims he will not work every again, LOL. At that point I'm not sure what the % is but I do know it's based off the last 3 years of service.

Here's a calculator I found online:
http://www.airforcetimes.com/money/r...IRECALCULATOR/

**jamie79** · 09-19-2009, 09:28 PM

Well dh just got selected for promotion to Sargent Major. All we know right now is he has to report to his new duty station at Ft Sam Houston ( San Antonio, Tx) in January and I am staying here as yds is a senior in h.s and I will have to try to sell the house.
We are not even sure when he is getting pinned. Sometime between Oct 1 and June is all we know

**Lindsey** · 10-17-2009, 06:10 PM

Nothing new... Hubby leaves for another deployment before Christmas. At least this time it's only 12 months(woohoo)! Trying to decide to extend his tour in Germany for another 3 or not, but we have till July to make the final vote.