Which job after military retirement would you choose?

[wilkersk]

... I honestly dont know if the individual services fund the pensions of their own retirees, or if it is broadly just DoW. But we really act like it is our money and we need to be stingy with it.

Military "pension" are all under Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) as far as I know.

Also, TFL has $trings attached. You have to enroll in Medicare A and B. And your part B premiums are subject to the Income Related Monthly Adjustment Amount (IRMAA). So, those of you planning on doing those Roth conversions for your spouse's tax deferred retirement accounts, guess what? It sucks! And its a 2 year look back (next year's IRMAA is based on last year's MAGI).

TFL is nothing more than a Medicare wrap around subsidized by the government with the option to be seen in a military medical center in some cases. If you're reasonably healthy into your senior years, it should be no sweat. But if you have chronic conditions and federal bennies go the way I suspect they're gonna go, get ready to tighten your belt.

 

[Pugs]

Military "pension" are all under Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) as far as I know.

DFAS is the disbursement agency but they do nothing without the respective service telling them to. The Navy BUPERS has been doing it's usual dance of incompetence for 5 months on an issue for me.

 

[flyingfrog]

I retired last summer as an O-5 at 20. I definitely started another full time career, but the pension takes the stress out of it. Don’t like your boss? Go find a different one. I find civilian life to be much less work and stress.

Tricare on the other hand is absolutely worthless. Triwest stopped paying their bills last year, so no provider in my area will see me or my family. I’ve got some chronic issues that require care, so the VA is going to pick me up next month. I’m still trying to find care for my family.

For advocates of universal healthcare, be forewarned. You get what you pay for, and it ain’t good.

 

[Ed Haywood]

Tricare on the other hand is absolutely worthless. Triwest stopped paying their bills last year, so no provider in my area will see me or my family. I’ve got some chronic issues that require care, so the VA is going to pick me up next month. I’m still trying to find care for my family.

My experience has been the opposite. Been retired 18 years. Raised a family on TriCare. A few disputes over coverage, but never a problem getting treated.

The key is matching your TriCare level to your location. If you live near a base like I do, TC Prime is best. It is like still being in. If farther away, TC Select or Standard may be better for you.

For advocates of universal healthcare, be forewarned. You get what you pay for, and it ain’t good

You had universal healthcare on active duty. Now you have health insurance.

For a family, equivalent coverage to TriCare would cost you somewhere around $1K per month, given a typical employee/employer premium split of 50/50. Like your retirement pay, it takes the stress out of changing jobs. Over time you will learn this as you watch your civilian workers pay through the nose for COBRA and scramble to find another job before that window runs out, or change all their doctors and dentists when their company changes carriers to save premiums.

 

[TCABM]

Tricare on the other hand is absolutely worthless. Triwest stopped paying their bills last year, so no provider in my area will see me or my family. …

My experience with Tricare has been the exact opposite. Retired on Prime with off base civilian PCM.

We were part of the regional realignment last year and were swapped over to West region. There were some hiccups for the first six months or so, but we haven’t had a problem with Tricare paying the provider.

For the $700 or so annual premium, it literally can’t be beat. The flip side is the inability to use an HSA, but FSAs are fair game, so I throw money in yhr FSA annually to cover what I can reasonably expect to spend on qualifying stuff.

 

[Van Johnston]

My experience with Tricare has been the exact opposite.

Same here. However, I I did find my employer’s TriCare supplement to be worthless.

I never saw the same provider twice in 20 yrs AD, except the Navy dentist that pulled my wisdom teeth. I’ve been going to the same GP practice for 20 yrs now. I see same PA on odd years and years divisible by 4. I see the MD on the off years and he signs my basic med.

But…yesterday I signed up for Medicare. My mileage may vary soon…

 

[TCABM]

…

But…yesterday I signed up for Medicare. My mileage may vary soon…

Ah yes, Tricare For Life time for you. I’ve never heard of a Tricare supplement befote, but I suppose if on standard it may be of benefit.

 

[flyingfrog]

My experience has been the opposite. Been retired 18 years. Raised a family on TriCare. A few disputes over coverage, but never a problem getting treated.

The key is matching your TriCare level to your location. If you live near a base like I do, TC Prime is best. It is like still being in. If farther away, TC Select or Standard may be better for you.



You had universal healthcare on active duty. Now you have health insurance.

For a family, equivalent coverage to TriCare would cost you somewhere around $1K per month, given a typical employee/employer premium split of 50/50. Like your retirement pay, it takes the stress out of changing jobs. Over time you will learn this as you watch your civilian workers pay through the nose for COBRA and scramble to find another job before that window runs out, or change all their doctors and dentists when their company changes carriers to save premiums.

I had healthcare that was part of my earned benefit on active duty. It is a system designed to keep relatively healthy people, and there is a chain of command that gets involved when their personnel aren’t medically ready to deploy.

I’m glad so many people are having a good Tricare experience. However, it’s a fact that Triwest stopped paying providers, and those providers are now not taking new Tricare patients across the board. Billing is also a huge issue for patients with significant medical issues. Be prepared for problems if you develop serious or chronic issues. My family literally cannot access healthcare because the bureaucracy broke, and we will likely go on my employer’s coverage until it gets fixed. Here’s an article from this week:

He pitched military service with a promise of lifetime healthcare. When he needed it, the system failed.

More than a year after the military’s health insurance program transitioned millions of people to TriWest, problems continue to plague the program, leaving patients in limbo.

www.nbcnews.com

 

[Warlock]

I have been switched to Triwest living in Texas and had no issues with Tricare…as an active cancer patient using out of network Cancer center they even worked out well for me. Compared to the civilian market they are great in my experience as well…

 

[tsts4]

So I'm retired USAF as is my wife--both of us did 20. I retired out of the Pentagon and went right back as a Contractor for a couple of years. Now I'm a DoW Civilian and just passed the 15 year point. My wife never went back to work. I look at the numbers now and then and might pull chocks at 18 vs 20, but it's lookng like a full 20 at the moment. We were TRICARE Prime originally because of the family but we stayed TRICARE initially because the VA really wasn't an option, but now just because we have a relationship established and don't want to start over even though we both could go VA (strill might in the future --its an option at least). My wife turns 65 this year so it's transition time to Medicare and TFL for her (I've done a lot of reserach and we're going with Part C vs A & B). I still have a few years left before I need to pull that trigger. A good tax strategy that takes into accout your pension(s), SS, and any investment instruments is curucial IMO, to the point paying for help from a CFP can be well worth it (eg if or when to do a ROTH conversion, delay SS or not, sequence of returns risk, etc). I've found most of the online/Youtube advice to be too generic to be of much use, other than for general education.

As for moving, it all depends on the organization you get on with and whether relocation at company/organization expense is part of the package. In both public and private sector, sometimes it is and sometimes it isn't. I've seen job postings on USAJOBs for jobs within the same gov org where within the same pay grade one job relocation was authorized and another where it wasn't (meaning relocation was on your dime). You have to decide if the location is worth enough to suck up the cost to get there. I'd argue that location is everything, but that's my pref.

 

[rhkennerly]

My wife and I are both retired Navy. We just sorta ended up in Virginia Beach under the pattern at Oceana (neighborhood got bounced hard yesterday with the Ford Fly-Off. Lotta pilots happy to finally get off the boat announcing their return). Neither of us were aviation related. Just some observations.

You gotta think about the whole picture retiring in a community that is full of military folks. Jobs are plentiful, but wages are depressed “since you have that military retirement,” and there are a lot of spouses in the job market, which doubles the issue of depressed wages. On the other hand, there are tons of contractors looking for good tech help at bargain prices. They also expect you to be available to travel a lot, you know, with all that “**** going on.”

The national markup in groceries is only 4%, which means that the commissary isn’t that great of a deal, nor the exchange (which should be turned over to Walmart). Healthcare is the shocker. MilMed kicked us loose at 65 when Medicare kicked in. Competition for finding health providers skyrocketed for us. (And believe me, 65 creeps up on you a lot faster than you ever imagine.)

So, my point is there isn’t much reason to “hang around the flag pole” when you cut loose. Take a good look around at where you might want to be.

And think about parts wear as you change careers. Two replacement knees before i retired and a frozen joint in one hand, now a pretty bad back, means that I’ve built my last airplane (I went through a tub of Tylenol building the SwampCat, which was really just a tab A into Slot B kinda build). A&P work would be torture. Even juggling about 5 different strengths of readers while building was a surprising challenge.

Get all the certifications you can before you punch out, even if you don’t think you’ll need them. There are so many programs available to you while you are in uniform that are difficult to access once you punch out. See the FSC Transition Assistance folks for help and contacts. Commands tend to be pretty generous with time for continuing education efforts at the end of your career. And local community and 4 yr schools around bases tend to have lots of transition programs that are generous exchanging work-life credits for military certificates. Take advantage of all of them. Get on the ROAD program and ease out.

Frankly, not making aviation my retirement has made aviation in retirement a lot more enjoyable. If you’re changing careers and locations, now is the time to think hard about those choices. That check and benefits is an excellent foundation to build a second act on, to say “no” when you don’t want to, and not feel compelled to latch onto the first ****ty thing that floats past. We are quite lucky, Chief.

 

[rhkennerly]

TFL is nothing more than a Medicare wrap around subsidized by the government with the option to be seen in a military medical center in some cases. If

Yes, it’s a wrap around, but I have learned never discuss of TFL with non-military retirees. The cost of TFL is magnitudes less expensive than commercial Medicare add-on. We’ve been on M-A&B plus TFL for almost 15 yrs now. It’s just like treatment at a MTF, you just have to hustle a bit to find providers in the private sector.

 

[rhkennerly]

From where I sit, there are lots of CFIs making small dollars to try to build hours. There is a demand for A&Ps and a larger demand for avionics guys. Those jobs pay much more.

I just don’t see the appeal of CFI, except that somebody paying for the plane. Even for aspiring ATPs, CFI isn’t 1500 hours of experience; being a CFI is the same 30 hours of experience over and over and over…

 

[rhkennerly]

Just a reminder: with all this tricare talk, be careful disclosing information you haven’t disclosed to the FAA (just an over sight, I’m sure, and you just haven’t let your ME know yet…you’ve been busy...but you will).

 

[rhkennerly]

Tricare on the other hand is absolutely worthless

Maybe for you, but it’s been terrific for our family. It all depends on the district you’re in right now.

 

[jayhawk74]

Maybe for you, but it’s been terrific for our family. It all depends on the district you’re in right now.

I agree with you 100%. My wife and I are on Tricare for Life and my daughter is on Young Adult Tricare Select. None of us have any problems using Tricare.

 

[Albany Tom]

I just don’t see the appeal of CFI, except that somebody paying for the plane. Even for aspiring ATPs, CFI isn’t 1500 hours of experience; being a CFI is the same 30 hours of experience over and over and over…

I've heard that, but when I was a student pilot I'm nearly certain I did a couple of things with the plane that the CFI had *never* seen before.

And I still survived.

 

[TCABM]

I just don’t see the appeal of CFI…

you don’t have to. Some folks actually enjoy instructing. There’s an intrinsic satisfaction that comes with enabling others to achieve something not many will ever do.

As for pro flying, there’s lessons to be learned adapting to others in the cockpit, exercising PIC authority, deepening your knowledge in certain topic areas, and realizing ypu’re just doing the same 30 hours over and over again is because that’s how you choose to do it.

 

[MIFlyer]

Military retirement is looming in my future, it could be as soon as late 2027 or roughly 3 years later depending on how future jobs pan out. I'm considering a few options for work after retirement from this job and am hopeful some of you can provide insight between becoming an A&P or a CFI.

Some backstory on me.
I'm currently working a desk job but my military background began in avionics and I'm still comfortable working on avionics but also enjoy working on aircraft as a whole. I've done some owner assisted annuals and do a fair amount of the work as long as my mechanic lets me and he's usually pretty good about letting me do something. He knows I'll always ask him for the second opinion and set of eyes and he knows I'm not afraid to say when I've reached my limit on knowledge or skill. Unfortunately, as an avionics tech I may not easily qualify to get credit for the required hours to earn my A&P. There are programs that convert time for us but they primarily focus on other jobs in the Navy and don't consider an avionics tech to have hands on experience with aircraft- although I'd argue we have at least half our time working on the aircraft as we all cross train and help each other out.

I also enjoy teaching and have been an instructor in multiple places/roles in the Navy and also worked as a Motorcycle Safety Foundation certified instructor/ridercoach for many years as a side hustle so the CFI route also has the potential to be something I would enjoy. I have zero desire to fly for an airline.

While both jobs seem to have at least some demand, I want a job that will allow me to get out of the house and make a few extra dollars while not going stir crazy after retiring from the military.

A&P seems to have a higher demand but I don't necessarily want to lock myself into a 9-5 job for all of eternity and if I go the A&P route would probably be selective on how much I work so I can still enjoy retirement.

CFI appears to have more freedom and less initial work to get certified but I wonder how much free time a CFI really has as I remember from my private training days the instructors were all on the schedule if a student booked them. They were all working towards the airline though so I may have more control on my schedule as a CFI.

As a completely unconnected but somewhat related tidbit, my wife and I hope to build either a Sling TSi or Velocity after I retire so I'll be busy at least for a few years after retiring and whatever job I choose to get out of the house will need to allow flexibility so we can get in the sky and go on flights.

Will, with all the A&P shortages, I wouldn't wonder if you could find a friendly A&P or even shop that would accept you as a part timer to help with MX. If you get the whole A&P I would think it'd be a strong proposition to work for a shop (big or small) and be able to set your hours/days a few weeks in advance. This might be a thing where you get several "no"s before you get a "let's see if we can make somethign work, I'm always backed up out the door". YOu could schedule being there during busier times (more planes in for projects, etc) and still be able to take weeks off.

I think this is the ideal job and I wish more places would offer something like this. I'm probably retiring soon, and my options are 50 hours a week or zero. Having the ability to work 6 hours a day, 3 days a week and take weeks off with a little advanced scheduling would be really compelling.