Salary, Retirement, and Relationships

[spekkio]

I wouldn't call it free money -- one has to dedicate 20 years to long hours and deployments to earn it.

My point was to highlight for the wannabes that one won't be able to actually retire after 20 years of service, as in no longer work at all, unless he makes good investments (which retirement funds won't let you touch until another 20 yrs ish later) or seriously scales back his standard of living. It's hard to go back to living on $25-35k/yr when you are accustomed to living on 3-4x that amount and probably have children that are just hitting high school or college age.

 It's a nice pad to a career transition but it's not enough to sustain a 38-50 year old with a mortgage, kids, etc. Once you hit real retirement age and can add social security and your IRA/TSP income it's a lot better.

[JsonD13]

This, remarkably enough, is similar to what is expected of you in ANY job.  What you do with your free time away from work is your prerogative.
 

This is the only part of your post I wholeheartedly disagree with.  Being on the outside is much different than when I was in.  It is sooooo much better on the other side of the fence.  My employer is alot less intrusive into my personal life than the Navy was and alot less demanding on my time.

But I am grateful for the experiences the Navy gave me.

[tucker0104]

Everyone has their reasons to stay in the navy. I don't understand it just like my friend (who is still in) doesn't understand why I got out. I see it as, I would rather trust my money that I invested than to trust the government for their retirement and healthcare. Although they do have TSP now. I live well under my means so that I can retire early. I should have every debt (including house) paid off by 35 so that I can be free to do what I want. My wife feels the same way, thank God. We probably won't have kids or that would cancel the 35 debt free plan. Right now, we are exploring going sailing for 3 years and then coming back to having to find something that pays a little money and hopefully something we both enjoy. I do enjoy making the money I do but it definitely isn't my dream job. I do appreciate having a job though, and I try to work hard at it.

[HeavyD]

I stand by my statement and offer some clarity. 

As an LCPO, I didn't give a rat's @$$ what my sailors were doing away from work, as long as it wasn't illegal.  The only thing I told them was when you come to work, leave the crap you do off the ship, off the ship.  The second I started getting calls about what they were doing from someone off the ship, then their business became my business; and things went downhill fast for them

Most businesses prefer this; leaving your personal stuff outside the workplace.

[spekkio]

I don't know when you were in, but that mentality gets khakis in a lot of hot water today. We had a married E6 drive 2.5 hours (inside liberty radius) to visit family. He got a DUI for refusing a breathalyzer (not very bright). CoC got lambasted by ISIC for not knowing his travel plans. Another case where a guy decides to buy a motorcycle. LCPO gets a talking to why he didn't know the guy was gonna do it (saved by the Sailor admitting it was an impulse purchase).

You can decide to look the other way but you will fry for failure of intrusive leadership if they screw up. It's often a choice between career mobility and treating people like adults, and a lot of people will choose the former.

[HeavyD]

Retired December 2011

My experience was always about showing you are competent in getting the job done and taking care of your sailors.
As for the one sailor with his travel plans, it was COMLANT policy to report your plans if traveling over 250 miles away from homeport.  The reasoning was that if someone didn't show up to work after a long weekend or such, we would have an idea of where to start looking for said individual.

While on active duty we are in a very unique job scenario.  The ins and outs are too numerous to mention here, but it makes for a distinct difference.  My point is that big picture expectations are usually not that different, as far as behavior goes, for either group.

The only trouble I ever got in was self inflicted and had nothing to do with any of this.  That's a long story though