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go for it! #yolo

"Get to stay" makes it seem like I have a choice. Not surprised you're confused though. What was your background again?

This post made me think of this from Good Morning Vietnam

What could go wrong?

We just had a guy twice passes over 11F who was offered continuation. He denied it and is separating almost a year earlier than his UPT ADSC. I am wondering if denying a promotion is treated the same or if they make you stay till the bitter end of your UPT ADSC. Not that it matters, but for me I was happily serving until I was called in and told by my Commander that my career field and year group was overmanned back in 2014 and I should be prepared for the possibility of not having a job in the Air Force from the RIF. I took a long shot and applied for a job making around $200k a year and after almost a year and a half of interviews, was offered the gig. By this time the Air Force has decided that I am vital to the organization, finishes the VSP/RIF option in 1 year versus the 5 authorized by congress and subsequently denies my Palace Chase and Hardship Applications. Just a little background for those wondering why I have so much hatred for Big Blue. Anyone know of any other options I have to free myself ?

One important rule to remember in life, but especially in the investment world, is that free research is almost always worth what you paid for it. With a few incredibly rare exceptions (like Mike Burry posting on Yahoo message boards) anybody who is smart enough and provides useful insight in their research will demand to be paid for that research. I would be wary of any free newsletter pitching stock "research" and I use that term loosely. Also, before you listen to anybody who claims they saw the financial crisis coming before it happened you should stop and ask yourself, why is this person not worth hundreds of millions of dollars and why are they still writing for an online newsletter? I'm a big believer that smart individuals with discipline and research can outperform the market over time. However the more time I spend working in finance the more I believe that most individuals are better off with low cost, broad coverage index funds or ETFs. If you have a full-time job it is highly unlikely you will have the time to really do the due diligence necessary to outperform the averages. Jim Cramer's 1 hour per week is a bullshit number, you're competing against people who spend 60-80 hours/week doing research and for every share you buy because you think it is cheap somebody is selling it to you who thinks it is expensive. If you are going to run the risk of a concentrated portfolio of just a few names you need to know them inside and out. Not just read the news but understand the accounting, how will those things you read about flow through the three statements, how will it effect the multiple being applied, which multiple is the right multiple for this business, where are we in the cycle. If you don't have the time to really understand a few businesses completely then you need to diversify to lower your risk and if you're doing that you might as well just own an index fund.

Not directly on topic, but applies to the discussion I think. Last UTA, my Reserve base just had a visit from the AFRC/A3 to brief the ARTs on retention. The picture did not look good, and they are bouncing any potential ideas to (1) keep the current ARTs attracted to stay, and (2) continue attracting potential baby ARTs. The core problem from my perspective is a simple numbers game. The older ARTs who already have 20+ years of federal service are doing the math (adding 1% for each additional year to the already secured civilian retirement vs. starting an airline career in their 40s). The potential new ARTs are doing even more lopsided calculations where they'd had to stick it out for 20 years as an ART to realize any retirement, vs the beauty of starting an airline career possibly in their late 20s. There is no golden carrot that a government job could possible offer that counters becoming a millionaire while progressively working less for more money. As a former Active Duty pilot, I'll say that the great thing (which totally works against AFRC) about the Reserves is the openness in which we discuss careers options that ACTUALLY benefit ourselves and our families. We have airline cockpit posters up all over the squadron, most of the TRs fly for major airline X, the TR squadron commanders are airline guys. So the discussion about doing what's best for your family is open and honest. On AD, these conversations do not exist. Every pilot with the potential to jump is playing those cards close to the vest until the very end due to overbearing leadership forcing everyone to project a false facade of loyalty to the company. It's total bullshit, with fake "support" coming from AD commanders that everyone knows is not genuine. There is not one person in my Reserve unit that would ever say "Oh, FedEx just called you? Before you take the interview, let's talk about how wonderful your ART job is and the impact on the unit if you left." All (including commanders) would actually say "You're an idiot if you don't take the interview and the job if offered. That's what I would do."

Not too sure about this one... Although my sarcasm detector might be inop Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Let me clarify: in my days of UPT instruction, I never saw a person who would be considered "below societal average" make it thru UPT. I did see some social retards thanks to the USAFA but ROTC produced some also, just at a lower rate. We washed very few studs out overall...usually T-6s did a good job screening for the 38 side. A few exceptions. There was one girl who had no business being in 38s but her T-6 ip talked her into it. We could have washed her, some die-hards would argue we should have. She was safe but well below avg in performance and had no business in a fighter type, she knew it, but had a great attitude and just wanted to fly. We lowered the 38 form stds significantly and lined up a non tactical jet super early. She did fine in inav and probably would have been above avg in the "other" jet but admittedly did not meet 38 course stds. We graduated her and she did great in her follow-on. Just saying, UPT is not a one-size fits all airframes training programs and judgment is required. T-38 washout rates should be low nowadays especially 38s with universal assignability. Flt/cc's need to make sure the AF is getting a solid match to pilot/aircraft compatibility.

Well sorry but we can't all fly fighters. And I hear those are hardly dropping anymore. Id rather fly something with weapons than a heavy anyway, who cares if it's an rpa. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk