ClearedHot

Unless you have a guy, call around. My investment dude is VERY aggressive and while it has paid off nicely in my portfolio, we don't always agree. Case in point, he is not a big real estate guy (makes sense, he wants my cash to work with), but I prefer to spread some of my risk around and I think there is value to actually owning something. If it were up to him I would have an interest only loan on all of my properties, make no principle payments and invest the extra money each month. When I was a Major I put all of my rental properties on 15 year mortgages and was able to build a lot of equity thus weathering the bubble that got a lot of people...I am WAY to the good on what I own, but as I get older I want less debt and more security. A few months ago I did a top to bottom review and thought about refinancing the rentals to take advantage of the lower rates, but having only six years until they are paid off made the math a toss up. Instead I was able to get a secured interest only loan (against my portfolio) at 2%, but I kept my monthly payment the same. Believe it or not my monthly house payment is only $78, but I still pay $1200, now the properties will be free and clear in three years. Rock-Bottomline, there are many strategies and talk to several money guys to find the one that is right for you.

I turned mine over when I was a Capt. Each situation is different but at that point I had two rental properties plus a primary residence...back then turbo tax did not like doing depreciation on multiple properties. I also had traditional and Roth IRAs for both my wife and I, as well as other investment accounts. The accountant found more than enough other savings to pay for the service...(my wife worked from home and we were able to deduct internet costs as well as a designated portion of the house she used as an office). Now that we have a child with a 529 and his own IRA, the accountant is a must.

Concur...we don't save enough as Americans...given the economic uncertainty of the future you would do yourself a huge favor and save a minimum of 10% of your income, realistically it should be more. The choice of which plan to use is a function of what you think your income will be at the point you begin to withdraw it. Realistically, most of the folks on this forum and in the military are younger so I think it best to maximize your Roth to build long-term tax-free wealth. However, you would be smart to suck it up and do both. One strategy I've heard is to put half of every military raise into savings/retirement...be it a yearly raise or a longevity raise, it can really add up and the best part is you never miss the income. I started with my first paycheck as a 2LT...$300.00 a month and upped it with each raise. I never missed it and still had plenty of money for beer and bourbon. I started with a traditional IRA and converted when the ROTH came a long...I paid a big tax bill to convert but to protect future gains is made a lot of sense. You will find you can quickly max the Roth so put the rest into TSP or a traditional IRA. You might not notice it at first, but it really adds up over time and the TSP has been like an extra bonus, I've easily saved $150K in the 10 years the program has been open for military.

https://www.tsp.gov/PDF/bulletins/11-u-4.pdf

Steve, you "crack" me up.

A 5-state ban for 'Piggyback Bandit' a 28-year-old man who ingratiates himself with high school sports teams, then hoists his 5-foot-8, 240-pound frame onto the backs of the student athletes. https://news.yahoo.com/5-state-ban-piggyback-bandit-084236687--spt.html

https://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/dreamliner-jet-draws-boeing-logo-across-north-america-163127660.html

"Rumor"...wink wink....has it that while she was an IP at DM she took off on a training sortie with a student on the wing. Enroute to the range she directed a fuel check and the student replied with the appropriate response indicating he took off with full tanks...at which point she looks at her fuel gauges for the first time that day and realizes the jet was not serviced before she took off and that she is now emergency fuel.

Thats funny because the last three O-6 boards have been full of late rate or banked guys who were MX officers, many of them BPZ. You will be walking a fine line and the challenge will be to keep profeiciency and credibility in the jet, if you can manage that task you will find an opportunity like this is awesome....not as a careerism move but as something that will teach you a lot of about leadership.

Libyan IADS?

100% incorrect...as usual.

Alright. Flush the bombers, get the subs in launch mode. We are at DEFCON 1.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/10/kim-jong-un-death-rumor-twitter-weibo_n_1268905.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003

LOL...Slow your roll, I'm not trying to poke the bear, just voice an opinion...Christ brother have a bourbon on me. The Billions unaccounted are not from the acquisition accounts and you know it...Perhaps we could have sent her over as a BGen to manage the rebuilding of the electrical grid or other areas where the money leaked like it was in a sieve. In her period of service I can't honestly can't think of an big ACQ programs we ran at deployed locations...I guess I am wrong. Bottomline, not trying to hang my hat on defending here, just another opinion on why every single person in the Air Force hasn't done 69 tours in the shit.

True Dat..lots of history...taken totally out of context.

Acquisitions? You mean like 50 dump trucks of gravel at K2? There is a HUGE difference between our contracting folks buy shit from the locals and an Acquisition officer buying a major weapons system from a foreign government. Besides, nothing even close to that happened in her time of service. In her time frame? Makes no sense...I agree.

I know some of that has happened, I don't know the what has happened in all cases. It is my understanding that among aviators, very few were pulled to serve in true "in lieu of" billets. There were cases that made sense to me...such as an EWO, was pulled to support convoy operations I can at least see a connection. However, I disagree with sending an aviator to manage a guard tower construction project (I've heard rumblings that a few FAIPs were diverted to these tasks). Again, not saying she is too important, just don't see any value in her presence there unless it was an urgent national need to A body in place. Also, to be fair, you have to look at her period of service. She came in to the Air Force in 1980...how many Aviators were deployed into "in lieu of " billets during the 80's and 90's?

Ugh...we can always count on you to fart in church and blame grandma. No one is saying she is too important to deploy, just that not everyone has a job that deploys. Under what logic would you deploy a person trained to do a rear area job that has nothing to do with combat or combat support? Plain and simple the acquisition corps is trained to procure things, to work with defense companies and lawyers to make sure the government is getting what it paid for...and from what I've seen as of late, we have not done the best job with a lot of programs, so why pull the only knowledgable people we have just to say they deployed. We are trying to fix the system so we get what we need and have it delivered on cost and WORKING, so it is not about someone being too important, it is about continuity and knowledge. Besides, in what capacity would you deploy someone like this, do you want to train Acquisition Capt's and Maj's to guard TCNs? How many times have we heard people bitch about everyone being called a "warrior"? II know it sucks that some of us have deployed 69 times since this mess started, but it doesn't make sense to deploy people who shouldn't be there just to make it all feel even. You ARE a warrior, own it.

U.S. Air Force Buys 18,000 Apple iPads to Replace Flight Bags https://www.ibtimes.com/articles/295430/20120208/air-force-18000-apple-ipad-bags.htm

Clark AFB...

We've done some of that in the past, but not in her time frame. There are other mechanisms to accomplish the same thing more efficiently, although they may not be working given some of our failures. Rather than put someone like this in theater and waste all the valuable training, I would insert a few operators into the AQ business (something that the operators always push back on because it is not sexy). Think of the impact we could have if we linked a savvy experienced captain with an AQ person and let them buy what we really need. Big Blue has deployed people to backfill the Army, but in most cases it has been enlisted folks who were in somewhat related career fields (SF). Of course there were some who were not related, but I haven’t heard of pilots or navs being diverted to convoy security… Regardless, our AQ folks tend to work the same program for years on end (thus identifying and underlying problem with how long it takes to procure some of our weapons systems). With her time on the F-22 I don’t find it hard to believe she has not been tagged for a deployed, as a matter of record, he F-22 has the same deployment record she does…

Because they volunteered to be an operators... How would you deploy someone like this and why??? She can't be the guy in your squadron or the WSO. I understand the desire to have everyone feel the pain, but we DESPERATELY need experts who know how to get the shit we need. Not saying she is the answer and this is not about her personally, but we are constantly bitching about our shit being screwed up thus proving the point that we need people who do this for a living and do it well. Deploying someone like this to some other type of job just doesn't make sense.

True...if you ever read a command list you will see folks like her listed as "Senior Material Leaders." The other side of the Air Force does not fit the same mold as the ops side.

Column: A real chance for change in the BCS Finally some movement in the right direction. https://news.yahoo.com/column-real-chance-change-bcs-235529252--spt.html