All Forum Posts by: Douglas Quayle

I'm in the same boat with this question. I had a break in active duty service where I was a GS-10 national guard technician, and I got the 5% matching, so I contributed about $11k. It has gone up to $13k and back down to $11k since 2011. Not very impressed. Now I'm back on active duty (AGR Guardsman) and wondering if it's a complete waste of time and money to fund the military non-matching TSP. Just buying and flipping vehicles from Craigslist in my time off I have vastly outperformed my small TSP account from civil service. And that leads me to think that in the big-boy market of housing, I will also vastly outperform any advantage in the TSP. On active duty in high BAH zones (I'm in the San Francisco area) most of our pay is tax free to begin with. We don't pay anywhere near the tax rates, percentage wise, of the rest of the country (even though it takes every penny of my $3675/mo housing allowance to live our 2BR life and STILL commute) But that brings up the other question. I'm not looking to punch out at 20 and move to backwoods Arkansas so I can afford to live on my estimated $2800/mo defied benefit pension. I'm from the SF Bay, and I want to LIVE where I'm from. So without a VERY aggressive plan to work my limited money between now and the retirement dinner, I don't see how my time in boots will EVER allow me to retire where I was born and raised. Can't buy a house to ride the equity train when your 2BR rental appraises for almost $800k. So, E-6 promotable at 40 years old with another decade to go for enough active duty retirement points (I had a lot of guard and civil service time, so 16.5 good "years" so far but not full up on pay points), I truly can't crunch the numbers in a way that shows me any benefit to plugging $18k/yr into a Roth TSP. That amount is 50% of my annual rent. Unless it rockets into the stratosphere with gains, I think id be pissing upwind and wondering why the air tastes tangy. I wish I could access my locked up civil service TSP money, but since I'm technically " on leave" from the GS job to serve this "activation", I can neither cash it out with penalties or borrow my 50% out of it. If I'm missing something here, experienced military BP folks, feel free to square me away. I've been chewing on this one all week on this TDY (reading BP forums from my Kirtland AFB billeting room every evening).

Thanks all.

Yes, CA is a tough nut to crack.  I'm originally from here but been all over the globe.  Watched my hometown market rapidly price out the majority of the peers I grew up with and most have been driven out toward the Sacramento/San Joaquin Valley if they wanted to even THINK of buying vs. renting.  We have tried to hold on here, but the 3/2's here are in the $1M range for mid 80's construction and not much lot.

@Manolo D, my VA loan isn't much help in a market where everything sells for over asking, in a matter of days and are mostly "cash". We are flooded with Chinese and Indian 'bigger pockets" here. MUCH bigger pockets.

@Ryan Jackson, I'm capped out at E-6 due to manning, and losing my airframe soon (new jet coming eliminates the Flight Engineer position), so big changes are coming for me regardless of whether I want them.

I'm coming to the conclusion that nothing will change until I pick the right 6 numbers on a Lotto ticket, or I pack up and move.

Again, appreciate the welcome.  Hope to chat with y'all soon.

Don't let me complain and whine.  I came here to find productive ideas and creative solutions, so if all I do is complain about what I already know, throw darts at me until I shut up and start asking good questions that get me back towards a cash flow existence. 

DQ

Hello.  My name is Doug, but you might as well call me Dr. AnalysisParalysis, because I have an honorary PhD in procrastination via research.  

I've spent a few years reading and listening and combing through all the ideas, but I'm still stuck at the starting line.  Married with a (special needs) 19 year old kid and fairly debt free, but there won't be any appreciable cash-savings to play with ANY time soon working and living where I do.  In the past decade, the free cash has never escaped the 4th figure bracket.

I'm active duty Military out of the Silicon Valley in NorCal, and I make the civilian (tax-advantaged) equivalent of approx. $105k/yr, but I am barely existing as a vested member of the paycheck-to-paycheck club in my run down rented 2BR, 1k sq ft house, enjoying my up to 2 hour each way commute to go 32 miles of bumper-to-bumper pure joy.  :-/

This HAS to end.  There HAS to be something better than this 'existence' life.  When I retire from Uncle Sam, I couldn't so much as pay my rent here with the pension that 20 years of service will buy you.

I need to pick a new club.  New peer group.  I just turned 40.  I better pick one soon, or my fate is sealed.  I didn't even celebrate the big "4-0" last month, because I am so upset with my lack of forward progress paddling against the stream.

So, that's why I ended up here on this site.  I can't buy a house to LIVE in here, much less to flip or buy and hold.  I better get smart, or I'll blink my eyes and find myself old(er) and broke(er).

I know I am not alone.  And I hope I don't have to re-invent the wheel.  Hope to make some friends here that are smarter than me, and have more experience. 

Even if that experience tells me to "get real" and to "move away from that insane place".