I hit 20 years last month, all as an officer and all promoted on time. I thought you might be interested in some gee whiz numbers from my 20-year career earning totals:
Base Pay: $1,254,900
BAH/OHA: $411,531
BAS: $47,787
Language Pay: $80,573
OCONUS COLA: $120,740
Total: $1,915,530
The BAS really surprised me. That $250/month added up over 20 years. I also never got flight pay.
My net worth is now $1,370,779. I’ve never had a 2nd job, my wife has never worked outside the home, I’ve never owned a house, and I didn’t inherit anything. That’s all from investing my military income, basically in S&P 500 index funds. Here are my totals:
TSP: $380K
Taxable index funds: $558K
IRAs: $296K
Cash, bonds, CDs: $137K
I’ll add that I haven’t sold any investments since 2008, and that was only $4K of stock to fund a honeymoon. Everything else has been buy & hold for my entire career.