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NFO or 4million bucks?
- Thread starter flyingLemonade
- Start date
You’ll never be able to buy your way in to the greatest frat / sorority of all time - Naval Aviation.
I’ve done this for 24 years. I would not trade it for any amount of money.
You won’t be remembered for having millions in your account.
I’ve done this for 24 years. I would not trade it for any amount of money.
You won’t be remembered for having millions in your account.
Spekkio
He bowls overhand.
I'm not sure how you get to the $3-4M net worth at 20 year retirement unless you hit it big on some high risk stocks. Total compensation for an O-5 retiring at 20 is about $2.5M, which means you made 50% ROI and invested 100% of your pay and allowances.
The pay and benefits are pretty damn good, but the biggest financial hit is that the majority of officers are perpetually renting / moving. The ability to purchase a home and build equity in property is one of the biggest paths to building wealth for the middle class, and the process gets infinitely more painful if you have school age children.
I've averaged saving or investing about 47% of my total income (to include BAH) for as long as I can remember and had no college debt due to USNA. I'd have to check when I get home from deployment, but I think my average performance on stocks is about 13-14%. I know that even if I average 7%, by the time I hit 20 I'm expecting about 2.2 million and that assumes I maintain my current amount of savings without bumping it up higher to account for O-5. If I account for that and stay to about 22 years, I'm looking at clearing 3 million with a 7% rate. I'll also add that my parents gave me what would have been my college fund, valued at about 20k at the time and now has a present value of about 88k, but that's small in the whole comparison of my net worth. I made about 30k on a home sale, the only home I've owned so far in 9(?) PCSs.
When I was an unmarried Ensign, I would balance my checkbook down to $5 each paycheck and all the leftover was invested. I follow the same principle now but to a higher amount.
I've only had 1 lucky stock pick that I made about $6000 on I think - I bought Sirius XM when it was at 16 cents and sold it when it was about $5 I think.
To the OP: Pretty hard not to notice that you've been silent on all the comments/recommendations you've received from people who had similar (maybe) opportunities and made a choice that altered their lives.
Over to you. Make YOUR choice, and then LIVE with it, whichever way you go.
"What we do in life echoes in eternity!" ~Maximus Decimus Meridius (Commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions and loyal servant to the TRUE emperor, Marcus Aurelius)
I'll also add this part is wrong unless I'm misunderstanding you. You're suggesting that I would have had to invested that all at once to get a 50% ROI. In reality, the power of compounding is truly phenomenal - again - I don't have access to my investment accounts right now, but at last check they were near 14%. Over 12 years, when I made my first investment, that is now up 481% from the initial value!
Anyone else calling bullshit on this?
Making 400k at 25 is extremely abnormal in ANY field. More so for someone who thinks $400k/year x 10 years = $4 million in a bank account (or $3 million after taxes)
I feel like the OP is genuine, but younger than what he claims and being really liberal with the jump to conclusions mat.
Making 400k at 25 is extremely abnormal in ANY field. More so for someone who thinks $400k/year x 10 years = $4 million in a bank account (or $3 million after taxes)
I feel like the OP is genuine, but younger than what he claims and being really liberal with the jump to conclusions mat.
JoeBob1788
Well-Known Member
$275k (living on $125k as a single guy…) invested yearly for 10 years, at 8% (historic is 10.5% from S&P 500 inception) would leave just shy of $4 million. Realistic, and wouldn’t even require a lot of financial discipline. My younger sister has a counseling degree, completed a 6 month computer developer course, and is now making around $240k after 2 years in that industry. I wouldn’t believe it if she wasn’t my sister TBH. She’s investing more than I make, and she’s significantly younger than I am, and her job isn’t as demanding. OP’s $400k is a lot more than $240k, but it’s possible.
I have been investing 12-15% into the TSP since I enlisted 9 years ago. Once I get past the pay cut from going to OCS, I’ll up it as I progress, but it’s nothing compared to what my siblings are making and investing. Two of my brothers are/were Army EOD officers. They had a good time; I enlisted into Navy EOD after college, and I’ve had an amazing time. They have a lot more money, but I don’t care, and they’re a little envious of my career path. It’s all in what you want.
The last 9 years in EOD has been great, and the next 11 in aviation should be too. Every time I’ve made a “poor” financial choice (never been in debt, except for a post-college/pre-Navy 6 month motorcycle extravaganza… owed my brother a chunk) it was for an experience. And it’s always been worth it.
The Navy will pay you enough to live and retire. If you get the right job, and flying is one of them, it will also provide some incredible experiences that you couldn’t buy. It’ll provide some high highs, and some low lows. It won’t be boring. If that doesn’t sound good, perhaps the Navy isn’t for you. And that’s fine. Go make money and use it to do other good and have other fun.
Yep. If you're in the tech industry, you're probably living in and around San Francisco -- you know, with its rents up in the stratosphere and not to mention it's in California with its infamous tax code -- so you're not taking home anywhere close to 400k per year. And, to JoeBob's point, I'm not sure how you live on 125k in Palo Alto unless you plan on being the newest member of one of their chic homeless encampments.
JoeBob1788
Well-Known Member
I have no experience with $400k jobs, but my sister works entirely remotely. She lived on a Mexican beach for 3 months paying basically nothing while making bank. The amount of remote tech jobs since the pandemic is unbelievable.
mapache2426
Member
I work at a big tech company in SF and 400k starting for a software engineer is extremely high but not unbelievable if he has some kind of majorly in-demand talent.
In my case O-1 pay would be a paycut but I'd probably still be saving more per month due to reduced cost-of-living.
So your sister found the chic homeless encampments in Mexico, huh!? See they're everywhere. Surely OP can find one in SF and make that bank coding numbers to his heart's content.
exNavyOffRec
Well-Known Member
In some cases it is just luck to get with a company with the nice big paycheck, I know a few recruiting managers that have a team about 8-10 who are making 200K a year plus bonuses. The thing I have noticed is they moved to nicer places, bought nicer cars and went on nicer vacations, make more money spend more money.