Danny Noonin

Sweet. Thanks for being on the team. But for whatever reason, over 25 or so hearing tests I've aced every one despite vigilant hearing test monitors like you. Still can't hear a damn thing my wife says, though. Hmmm.

and academy guys

Serious advice. If you haven't heard anything for 5 seconds or so hit the button. My hearing results were better this month than they were 20 years ago. Notice I didn't say my hearing was better.

I get that you follow Dave Ramsey and like it. If it works for you, fine. It's your money. But you might do well do think for yourself a bit once in a while. Dave Ramsey's "ELPs" are all commission based. They make money when the sell you funds with a load and high expenses. Guess where some of those fees go? Back to the Lampo Group--Dave Ramsey's company--as a referral fee. I'm sure you know this because you've looked it up yourself. It's even on his website. Most credible non-commission based financial advisors would caution you about blindly putting money into a loaded fund, let alone an underperforming, high expense ratio C fund. There's a reason for that. I don't quite understand your need to defend this particular investment because it has "made you money". Most stock funds made better money than that last year. Your fund is consistently underperforming and you are paying extra for that privilege. It's rated only 2 out of 5 stars by Morningstar. You have a 2.2% expense ratio in that fund. That's outrageous! That's all cutting 2.2% into your account, every year. For reference, the typical actively managed stock fund has an expense ratio of about 1.5%. The average index fund expense ratio is about 0.25%. Vanguard S&P500 index fund is 0.18% So you would have to do about 2% better than the index to break even, not even counting the load. Right now, the returns in that fund are averaging about 2% less than the S&P index, so you're in reality averaging 4% down or so. That's pretty big money, especially in the long run. I'm not trying to throw a spear at you, I'm just pointing out that the facts and math are not on your side. When I was a young 2Lt, I got roped into the USPA gig. Nice retired Lt Col pilot was the local USPA guy and sponsored my UPT class. Gave a great sales pitch about how loads don't matter in the long run and "you get what you pay for" with loaded funds...which is absolute bullshit. They put me into a fund that severely underperformed the market for years and years until I finally wised up. That was an expensive lesson for me in the long run and I'm pissed about it to this day. Good for you. But your IRA is neither FDIC insured nor liquid, so you are comparing apples and oranges. I don't think he was suggesting that he uses a checking account as an IRA or as his sole investment vehicle (maybe I'm wrong). I assume you have some liquid savings somewhere? An emergency fund perhaps? 4%, if true, is an unbelievable rate...better than any savings account or even CDs I've seen for years. Then why did you put your money into IAALX? It's a stock fund. Like I said, 12% is a not a great return this year on the scale of things...throw in your 2.2% in expenses and you're not doing very well relatively. A cheap, no-load S&P 500 index fund would be up over 16% this year. You don't need to have a PhD in financial planning to run the numbers. If you like Dave Ramsey and trust his network, good for you. That's an expensive path, but it's yours to take. I'm not advocating any particular path--to include index funds (I don't have them), but I am advocating that young pups educate themselves a bit on investing basics. Learn about expenses, performance, diversification, etc. It all matters. If you don't know where to start, go to the library or bookstore and get an "Investing for Dummies" type book. It will explain all of this stuff at the caveman level. My naivete cost me a lot of money when I was young--which translates to when I'm old as well. Time value of money and all.

Well...the radar scope is less than 2 feet away. I'm sure that counts. Doesn't it?

If that's the case, then why did you ask strangers on the internet this question: Serious question. Did the "(2) units" tell you that after your first post or is there more to this?

It is done all the time...but not after the fact, after a promotion board with the intent to use the report that you fudged CRO dates for on an actual supplemental promotion board and/or to dispute the results of the original board.

Now I'm even more confused. Are you saying you like to pay extra money to get a far lesser return on a stock fund than the S&P 500 index for your IRA? Serious question. I feel like I cannot possibly be reading your posts correctly.

Not with a straight face. The 120 day number is only important on OPRs when you change reporting official (i.e. rater change). i.e. your boss PCSs out and you get a new boss, if the old boss had at least 120 days of supervision on you then you get an OPR. If not, you don't. Same deal if you PCS out before your annual is due. If your last report is less than 4 months old, you generally don't get another report just because you are leaving. If it's older than that then you are supposed to get another report, even if your annual is not due. So in your case, unless someone wanted to (wink-wink) say your rater changed somewhere in there and they "forgot" to update it in MILPDS and "forgot" to write your OPR, then you don't get a report. Basically, this would look really fishy to a supplemental board.

I'll take the contrarian point of view here. Is your personal morale tied to air conditioning? Let me ask it this way...would you trade jobs with those guys because they worked shorter hours in air conditioning at an "easy" job? Serious question. Would you expect that your morale would be higher or lower than it is now if you worked "in a cooler typing inventory" instead of in an airplane? Fellas, some jobs just suck regardless of temperature. Having morale in some of these jobs would be challenging to put it mildly, especially when so far removed from the tip of the spear. Operators don't get their morale from comfort. We get it from being able to see the j-o-b get done from up close. We get to see the actual fruits of our labor most of the time. These kids do not. They are far from home for long periods of time as well. Maybe not as much as you. But they get less pay, zero glory and don't get to see any results from their work. So yes, I would say their morale is probably pretty shitty...all so you could have a nice cooler full of cold drinks in the middle of a war. Whenever you want to shit on someone else and how easy their job is compared to yours, ask yourself this: would YOU want to do that job? If the answer is "no" then just be thankful you don't have to...and that someone else is willing to do it.

I'm confused...are you bragging about having your money in a fund that's done well worse that a generic S&P500 index fund YTD? Also well worse than the S&P for 3, 5 and 10 year returns? And you are paying a load to perform that way? And while you don't have to "worry about defaults", you do realize your choice of IRA is hardly risk-free, don't you? It lost 40% in 2008. Am I missing something? Exhibit A why you never take financial advice from pilots

Not to overly pile on, but read this quote you posted carefully then think this through. This talks about deployment length for those that deployed, not average days deployed per person per year for the entire career field. So even if the 263 is accurate, it only accounts for those that actually deployed, not an average for each finance officer. So even if finance averages the longest deployments, that is not remotely close to the same as being the most deployed.

There are a couple outright scoffs of the book and Two Dogs in general from dudes who claim to know him on Amazon.

Incorrect. A man putting a "smiley thing" generally means you're gay

He just doesn't know the words.

Ummm...

Seems like that to me.

Don't bother dude.

No, it's exactly why space guys are their own worst enemy. Way too much "trust me". Way too little SA on the way the world works outside their little soda straw.

Exactly

Or LoC?

Head? who said head?

Whining.

I concede to the gentleman from Great Britain and waive my right to a rebuttal.

Actually, you should have capitalized the L, O and C as well. So you were extra wrong.