Thanks NaVI4 for your post, this site has been a godsend for me. The more I learn, the more I realize that recruiters as some mutated form of car salesman (and I should now having spent 4 months doing so). Even sincere ones that try to be honest still cant speak about what its like to be a Nuke.
Can you elaborate on the quote above? I've been trying to crunch the numbers on my Navy future but there are still many gray areas. In your experience, is it better to live in base housing or get the housing check. for instance, I've been told that CA allowance is around 16 to 18 hundred, and I could probably get by on maybe a thousand to 12 hundred here (rent and utilities). wouldn't that equate to pocketing about 4 to 6 hundred extra untaxed? I know it depends on the areas cost of living, but with the commissary and the exchange, I'm envisioning navy pay going a lot farther than it seems on paper.
When you started nuke school, did you have kids? or for that matter a 4 to 5 month old? I know I'll be stretched very thin, do you think I can be a good father (that my kid recognizes). I figure at worst I would get a better chance after 6 yrs (if I leave the navy) to really influence my boy from 6 yrs old on.
Thanks,
Steve
P.S. Keep the posts comin' guys, I love learn for everyone's experiences
Steve,
I appreciate your honesty and willingness to ask the questions. Some of the answers are found if you use the search function; however, I also understand the difficulty in searching for something you don't know to search for. I am going to break down my current active duty pay for you and then describe to you how it will change in a very short time when I transition to the retired list.
Here is what my Leave and Earnings statement looks like
Base pay......... 71% of Gross Pay
BAS (food)........2% of Gross Pay
BAH (housing)..18% of Gross Pay
Sub Pay............9% of Gross Pay
Then there are the deductions:
Federal Tax, medicare, Social Sec, and insurance is 14% of Gross Pay
( I am not going to account for TSP deductions )
The way the military comes up with your bi-monthly payment is take the Gross Pay - Deductions and divide it by two. That comes up with a monthly payment of $xxxx which is 35% of my Gross Pay.
Now, my take home pay comes up to be approximately 50% of my base pay. Now, when I retire, the Navy will pay me once per month 50% of my base pay (55% for me as you add 2.5% for every year past 20 up to a max of 75% at 30 years). For sake of discussion, I will not include VA benefits and disabilities which can reduce your taxable retirement pay or even pay you more for retirement pay if you are really broke.
So the month following my retirement date, I will receive a check $xxxx which comes out to be approximately 40% of my current pay. Now, this does not account for the annual bonus I receive which I account for when I calculate my annual salary. If you add that, then now, I am down to my retirement take home being about 30% of what I live on right now.
What does all this mean? Not much except that when a recruiter tells you that you can retire at 20 years with 50 % of your pay, he is technically telling you the truth, but it will be about 30 to 40 % of what you are accustomed to receiving.
This isn't a bad thing. I am thankful for the additional check that I will receive for the rest of my life.
Here is the rub...many will tell you that why spend 20 years in the Navy to receive a small check for the rest of your life when you can get started in the civilian world earlier and make more money. This is a true statement. However, I offer another side to this story. First, I am NOT
(sorry that means I screamed in forum speak) a Navy recruiter. I can only speak for my career. I haven't just worked for 20 plus years to get a check for the rest of my life and then to start out 12 years behind my counter parts in the civilian world. I have experienced many wonderful things that the Navy has allowed me to experience. This doesn't mean you can't experience great things if you get out. What I am saying is that my family (wife and children included) have enjoyed this experience and we have lived all over the world. I have a daughter who is in the 7th grade and this is her 8th different school. That may sound frightful to some, but my kids have enjoyed moving around and meeting people from all over the world. We have friends in so many countries and that is priceless. Not to mention all the very cool things I have been able to do in the military. Yes, I will agree that as an officer, I have been afforded many opportunities that I did not have while cleaning motor generators.
You asked about kids and nuclear power school. I have been through the pipeline twice, once enlisted and the other time as an O-ganger. The first time I was single and the second time I was married and had two kids (age 4 and 2). We had our third just after prototype while I was in SOBC. (See the terms list that Honeycomb worked sooo hard on if you don't know what that means.)
I personally believe that the Navy has strengthened my relationship with my wife and children. We are an extremely close knit family that relies on each other every single day. We are strong for many reasons. I won't go into the issues of church here, but the fact that I have been deployed for some of my girls young lives has actually strengthened our family. You see, learning to lean on friends is a good thing, and absence does make the heart grow fonder. We learned very early that we should not take one single day for granted because you never know when you won't see each other again. This applies to everyone, but very real in the submarine community.
I have only lived in Navy housing twice. Once in prototype (good deal) and the other in Monterey CA while attending NPS (great deal). In CA, my experience was that the BAH would not cover the housing, electricity and utilities.
I hope this helps.
I feel like Beercourt.
