Instead of incentivizing other products to compete, how about not paying corn subsidies?
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PSA - things I should have done....
- Thread starter drgndrvr
- Start date
Spekkio
He bowls overhand.
Not only that, we have to stop being dogmatic to diet fads...
In the 80s, butter was bad but margarine was good.
In the 00s, carbs were bad. Mayo was good - no carbs!
In the 10s everyone suddenly had a gluten allergy.
Now it's expensive grass fed beef.
It's all bs. Eat a balance diet and get off the couch.
It doesn't seem like it could be put better. Junk foods abound in the average American diet and combined with sitting at a desk all day and being a couch potato all night you end up with a population that was 42% obese (and not jets) in 2018.
Something I would have done immediately upon commissioning is not buy a brand new car, and gotten a car that I could pay for in cash instead, and take that USAA Career Starter Loan (didn't use that for the car either, another thing I should have done) and dump it into my biggest/highest APR student loan. Reason is that the car lost its luster for me after a few years, there's always something nicer and faster, and the student loans are still hanging over my head. I thank my parents for helping me out with the car loan. Probably one of the best gifts they could have given me. Now I'm going to hang on to this thing until the wheels fall off.
I would have not bought a bunch of nice shit like a couple guns, dress clothes, and the newest iPhone just because I suddenly had a better paycheck. Reason being is none of that stuff made me a better student naval aviator, which is my job. It was just a distraction that made me feel better for a week or two until I got the itch to buy some other thing. Plus when I found out that my biggest deferred student loan was actually gaining interest the entire time I was taken aback; I did an immediate about face on my spending. Now I'm "avalanching" my student loans, meaning I dump as much money as I can afford into the biggest/highest APR one until I pay that off and then dump that same payment into my other smaller loans to create a payoff avalanche so they aren't nipping at my bank account for the next 20 years. Plus I invest my flight pay in the market in mutual funds and started a personal IRA that I chuck a hundred at every month so what I don't spend on student loans is still working for me in the future.
I would have invested more in my health while I was still at my peak after OCS; eat right, drink water, work out enough to stay fit, sleep well, and stop drinking just to drink like I did in college. Being in good shape with proper diet and as much good sleep as you can get makes your life better. Your body will absorb the abuse you give it but you will not feel good in the end. Now I eat very cleanly, sleep on as much of a regular schedule as flight school allows, and study my ass off when I'm not working out; the result is that my performance as a student naval aviator and my general feeling as a person has markedly improved so I will continue.
What's the point? Even though you get told a thousand times about these things I still did them. So do plenty of other O-1s (and young Americans) so the message doesn't work so well. Yes it was my choice and my responsibility but the message didn't get through to me until I grew up a bit and learned on my own. I don't remember getting any real lessons in personal finance or health besides my parents telling me when I was a teenager to pay off my credit card every month and don't max that out, which was great advice that I've followed religiously I'll admit.
Do I deeply regret any of my decisions? Not really. I learned something valuable so I won't repeat those mistakes and that matters. No sense in being a old rich miser either, so set aside some money to live a little every month that you won't feel bad about. I usually spend that on cigars, golf, and shooting.
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And I forgot to mention the TSP. Use it. Put as much as you can afford into it. It's easily the best thing you could do for yourself that only military has access to, the earlier the better so you get the most out of that compounding interest. Make it Roth or Traditional, make it Common Stock Index or Lifecycle Funds, whichever works best for you just use it.
Heheh, guilty here, too. Too many hot pockets, microwave pizzas, and fast food through flight school. I didn't put completely shitty food into my body though (always a simple, healthy breakfast, never been one to buy soda by the case or stock up on candy), but there were hundreds of times that ENS Jim123 walked in the commissary, skipped the fresh produce section and headed straight tor the TV dinner section.
But as you said, it was something I had to learn on my own- and so did most of my friends.
That’s exactly what I thought I said. Undoing the corn subsidies is leveling the playing field. But a sugar tariff is equivalent to a corn subsidy, even though it doesn’t say the word corn explicitly.
Nothing to do with lettuce but airports are funded a little bit like the Interstate system, since one of their main purposes is to support interstate commerce. Local governments a lot less say over what goes on at the airport if they have accepted federal money for that airport. Unless your name is "Daley," but that was the exception to the rule (if you or I took bulldozers to a runway in the middle of the night then we'd be on a terrorism watchlist for the rest of our lives... old Bill got away with just a $3,000 fine).
exNavyOffRec
Well-Known Member
I found out today that the new VFW National Commander has been working for First Command Financial since he retired, it is interesting that a company that has some questionable activities is the choice of employment by someone who is supposed to be looking at the interest of veterans.
My own opinion having seen the FC guys at career fairs for years is that they seem to like members that are retiring and still have base access, every time they would talk to me there were just red flags going up.
In some distant land thousands of years ago, some old guy was telling some snot-nosed new member of the king’s guard to not waste his gold coins on chariot races and and those new thongless sandals that were all the rage.
The circle of life, shipmate. Just wait til you have kids.
I’ve read through this thread and noticed many have said “I wish I would’ve maxed out my TSP each year”. Does that mean the 5% match or the $19,500 contribution maximum? The latter seems a bit of a stretch of budget for ENS . I follow a lot of this already(don’t eat out/meal prep healthy, invest in index funds, live frugal).
**currently awaiting new ocs date so not active, but intend to invest 15% into TSP and 10% separate in my own Roth IRA
**currently awaiting new ocs date so not active, but intend to invest 15% into TSP and 10% separate in my own Roth IRA
"Max the TSP" means reach the entire annual contribution limit (ideally spread out over 12 months so you can get matching every month).
Everyone budgets differently, but many prefer prioritizing the TSP because of its extremely low fees ("expense ratio").
One benefit for prioritizing the IRA is that you can better control the asset allocation (not that the TSP has too many bad options). Another, if you chose the Roth IRA route, is that you can withdraw any contributions at any time without penalty as long as you don't touch the accrued interest. For me, that flexibility combined with a stable military income makes me comfortable forgoing contributions to a traditional savings account (your financial ORM sheet may read differently).
That makes more sense. I just wanted to be sure everyone here wasn’t saying to put $19.5k a year towards TSP, because that would be a stretch.
And yes I prefer the Roth IRA for being able to withdraw contributions without penalty if the case ever arose. The downside is the income cap for Roth which I’m sure most hit through extended service or transitioning to civilian pilot. Still young and haven’t thought that far ahead of how to combat that one yet.
On a side note, is there any way to continue investing in TSP after detachment? I understand most are “kicked out” after not promoting to O-4, so is transitioning to reserves an easy option to keep the TSP open? I understand mathematically it makes no difference (i.e. $100k in TSP 6% return=$6k vs $50k TSP and $50k IRA both 6%= $3k +$3k) but the “free money”(Match) would be nice if still offered in reserves.
Obviously depends on your financial situation, but I'd at least hit the 5% number to get all the match you can. If you do 10% and get another 5% from the match, that's ~$6k a year at a very early age.
You may not be able to max as an ensign but by the time you are a JG and especially at the 3 year mark if you’re single you can definitely max and get to 19.5
If you’re young and single and live within your means, maxing it isn’t really that hard. If you have dependents it would be a lot harder.