Posted: 7/20/2009 4:22:00 AM EDT
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The ability to be introspective and totally honest with yourself is, I think, something that is missing in society today. Therefore I make it a point every 6 months or so to look at what I am doing, what I have, who I have helped and try to define whether or not I am a good human.
I made it a point last year to serve my country but I am not going to leave it at that for this chapter in my life. I must do for myself and my family/friends as well. So I am going to list pros and cons of the last 6 months and be honest with myself about what I could have done better. Cons: Have not set myself up for success with a good savings and investment plan Have not gotten any closer to buying my own land and having a place that is "mine" Have been rude to ignorant people because I did not want to take the time to set them straight Have been agressive with local nationals who were being too slow for my liking Have squandered money that could have been saved for a better use Have not gotten training beyond military correspondance courses. These are available in my downtime and I have not taken advantage of them Have not made a direct attempt to change outdated training doctrine in my unit Pros: Helped my family financially to make it to my grandfathers funeral(8 grand for 15 days of leave....ouch) Took as much hip pocket training as I could get from knowledgable NCO corps Trained some guys in new shooting techniques that improved their qual scores Took pride in my job and did it well Learned everything I could about repair and maintenance of our vehicles This is of course just my professional life. In my private life I have become a distant person because I am working on achieving my goals for the future with no interruptions. No Girlfriend, no prospects, just blankness in that area and a lot of fist rape. I don't see this as a bad thing though as it saves me a lot of trouble and time I can devote to other things. My plan for the next 6 months is to find one of the following: #1 Contracting job paying 100k or more, preferably overseas. #2 Unit deploying to Astan in a combat role. #3 Some place in Florida to live so I can get away from the hippies and get better toys. |
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Quoted:
The ability to be introspective and totally honest with yourself is, I think, something that is missing in society today. Therefore I make it a point every 6 months or so to look at what I am doing, what I have, who I have helped and try to define whether or not I am a good human. I made it a point last year to serve my country but I am not going to leave it at that for this chapter in my life. I must do for myself and my family/friends as well. So I am going to list pros and cons of the last 6 months and be honest with myself about what I could have done better. Cons: Have not set myself up for success with a good savings and investment plan Have not gotten any closer to buying my own land and having a place that is "mine" Have been rude to ignorant people because I did not want to take the time to set them straight Have been agressive with local nationals who were being too slow for my liking Have squandered money that could have been saved for a better use Have not gotten training beyond military correspondance courses. These are available in my downtime and I have not taken advantage of them Have not made a direct attempt to change outdated training doctrine in my unit Pros: Helped my family financially to make it to my grandfathers funeral(8 grand for 15 days of leave....ouch) Took as much hip pocket training as I could get from knowledgable NCO corps Trained some guys in new shooting techniques that improved their qual scores Took pride in my job and did it well Learned everything I could about repair and maintenance of our vehicles This is of course just my professional life. In my private life I have become a distant person because I am working on achieving my goals for the future with no interruptions. No Girlfriend, no prospects, just blankness in that area and a lot of fist rape. I don't see this as a bad thing though as it saves me a lot of trouble and time I can devote to other things. My plan for the next 6 months is to find one of the following: #1 Contracting job paying 100k or more, preferably overseas. #2 Unit deploying to Astan in a combat role. #3 Some place in Florida to live so I can get away from the hippies and get better toys. First...allow me to commend you on your ability to look inward and perceive what it is that you believe needs improvement. Far too few of us seem to possess that ability. Would also recommend that you start a savings and checking account ASAFP. I understand that Navy Federal is a pretty good place to do just that...but check out BankRate.com first and see what your best options are. Wherever you decide to do your banking...be sure that you can start up an IRA there as well and start automatically depositing money into it. When you pcs out of the Army...I'm sure that you could do the private security contractor thing for a while. Probably shouldn't do it for more than 2-3 years just to build up some sort of nest-egg for the purchase of a home/acreage. Sooner or later you're going to have to remove that target from your forehead and transition into civilian life. You'll find out sooner or later that most of the knowledge, skills, and behaviors necessary to succeed in combat are not necessarily the same knowledge, skills, and behaviors needed to succeed in civilian life. You'll need some sort of trade/technical post-secondary education, and you'll need to do some research into what jobs are going to be the highest in demand, and which ones you think you'll be interested in doing over the long haul. One recommendation...have you ever thought about using your current skill-set/credentials toward teaching private classes as a sort of side business? Something akin to shooting clinics, land navigation, fieldcraft/combat tactics, reconnaissance, PSD drills/training, small unit tactics and such? InSight Training Center does just that, but their classes are too few and fill up fast. LMS Defense does as well, but they're not local and they cancel many classes and don't advertise well. Would be nice to have an alternative. Just some thoughts. |
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First...allow me to commend you on your ability to look inward and perceive what it is that you believe needs improvement. Far too few of us seem to possess that ability. Would also recommend that you start a savings and checking account ASAFP. I understand that Navy Federal is a pretty good place to do just that...but check out BankRate.com first and see what your best options are. Wherever you decide to do your banking...be sure that you can start up an IRA there as well and start automatically depositing money into it. When you pcs out of the Army...I'm sure that you could do the private security contractor thing for a while. Probably shouldn't do it for more than 2-3 years just to build up some sort of nest-egg for the purchase of a home/acreage. Sooner or later you're going to have to remove that target from your forehead and transition into civilian life. You'll find out sooner or later that most of the knowledge, skills, and behaviors necessary to succeed in combat are not necessarily the same knowledge, skills, and behaviors needed to succeed in civilian life. You'll need some sort of trade/technical post-secondary education, and you'll need to do some research into what jobs are going to be the highest in demand, and which ones you think you'll be interested in doing over the long haul. One recommendation...have you ever thought about using your current skill-set/credentials toward teaching private classes as a sort of side business? Something akin to shooting clinics, land navigation, fieldcraft/combat tactics, reconnaissance, PSD drills/training, small unit tactics and such? InSight Training Center does just that, but their classes are too few and fill up fast. LMS Defense does as well, but they're not local and they cancel many classes and don't advertise well. Would be nice to have an alternative. Just some thoughts. Few points here. I have a savings account and I use the thrift savings program that the Army offers but I have not done any investing. Primarily because of the volatility of the market at the moment. I can do the private security thing now by going inactive from the Guard for duty overseas. Authorized by my company commander already. It just adds on time to my ETS I am 31, I have quite a list of usable skills so far but you are right. I have nothing documented from a center of higher learning. I do realize that combat skills are not the be all end all of things to know but the training I have received here is outstanding and one of those "Use in the future" things. As for direct combat we have not done much of that on this deployment, hence the looking for an Astan gig thing. I COULD do the training stuff but as I said before it is one of those things where I need more experience to have the basis for being able to say "Come to my school" There are instructor training courses available to LE through the NRA and they accept MIL if you have a verifiable need for the school. All I have to do now is convince my chain of command that "Big Army doctrine" is not the best for a Cav unit that operates in much smaller units than say, an infantry unit. I will be working on that as we move along and I think I have the 1st sgt on my side with this. So the plus side of that is I will be able to take those teaching credentials and perhaps make a business out of it. I am in fact looking for land to make that kind of training possible. |
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Quoted: Few points here. I have a savings account and I use the thrift savings program that the Army offers but I have not done any investing. Primarily because of the volatility of the market at the moment. I can do the private security thing now by going inactive from the Guard for duty overseas. Authorized by my company commander already. It just adds on time to my ETS I am 31, I have quite a list of usable skills so far but you are right. I have nothing documented from a center of higher learning. I do realize that combat skills are not the be all end all of things to know but the training I have received here is outstanding and one of those "Use in the future" things. As for direct combat we have not done much of that on this deployment, hence the looking for an Astan gig thing. I COULD do the training stuff but as I said before it is one of those things where I need more experience to have the basis for being able to say "Come to my school" There are instructor training courses available to LE through the NRA and they accept MIL if you have a verifiable need for the school. All I have to do now is convince my chain of command that "Big Army doctrine" is not the best for a Cav unit that operates in much smaller units than say, an infantry unit. I will be working on that as we move along and I think I have the 1st sgt on my side with this. So the plus side of that is I will be able to take those teaching credentials and perhaps make a business out of it. I am in fact looking for land to make that kind of training possible. You could also teach movie stars to play makebelieve better...I hear there's good money in that. |
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Quoted:
The ability to be introspective and totally honest with yourself is, I think, something that is missing in society today. Therefore I make it a point every 6 months or so to look at what I am doing, what I have, who I have helped and try to define whether or not I am a good human. I made it a point last year to serve my country but I am not going to leave it at that for this chapter in my life. I must do for myself and my family/friends as well. So I am going to list pros and cons of the last 6 months and be honest with myself about what I could have done better. Cons: Have not set myself up for success with a good savings and investment plan Have not gotten any closer to buying my own land and having a place that is "mine" Have been rude to ignorant people because I did not want to take the time to set them straight Have been agressive with local nationals who were being too slow for my liking Have squandered money that could have been saved for a better use Have not gotten training beyond military correspondance courses. These are available in my downtime and I have not taken advantage of them Have not made a direct attempt to change outdated training doctrine in my unit IOW... you're a GI. Oh, that last point? Leave to the senior NCOs or to the officers. Sure, you can say "Hey, Sarge, what do you think of this here I read last night in this book/on the internet...?" but unless you're really, really tactful and diplomatic, be careful how you approach this issue. In case you wondered why I retired as an SFC... Good work making a plan. Don't get discouraged if Life gets in the way. |
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but I have not done any investing. Primarily because of the volatility of the market at the moment. Many people are afraid of that word, "volatility" and use it as an excuse to sit on the fence. One must understand that "volatility" is just another term for fluctuations in the share value of a stock. The price of a stock MUST fluctuate (i.e. "volatility" in the share value) in order to make any money on it. If one owns a stock, and the price never changes...one hasn't made any money on it (unless it issues dividends or something). One can make money on shares directly (.buying or shorting) or with stock options (calls or puts), irrespective of whether the value of the stock goes up or down, depending on how you're set-up beforehand (that's the key). Personally, I count myself as a "disciple" of William "Bill" O'Neil and have read all of his books on investing (as well as many others) and I am a subscriber to Investors Business Daily... Lots of good info on the "Business and Investing" forum here on Arfcom as well. arjedi and Migradog...I believe their a WAHTF locals (?) they're a wealth of good information. |
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Quoted:
Oh, that last point? Leave to the senior NCOs or to the officers. Sure, you can say "Hey, Sarge, what do you think of this here I read last night in this book/on the internet...?" but unless you're really, really tactful and diplomatic, be careful how you approach this issue. In case you wondered why I retired as an SFC... Good work making a plan. Don't get discouraged if Life gets in the way. I am a tactful motherfucker! I have actually started training some other joes on the side to get their proficiency up and it leaked up the chain. I have done a few classes already and the COC approves of my style. I just need to integrate some more advanced weapon handling/tactics and fortunately they see the need for it. They saw the advances with tactical proficiency after the BW training that we did and although it is not straight from the TM/FM it is GOOD training that is more of a cognitive base as opposed to a lowest denominator base and they want to see more of it. We shall see what happens with that. |
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Quoted: You should be eligible for the govs Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) There are several investment options and I believe they match you on the first 5%. TSP does the 5% matching thing everywhere in the Federal Government except military pay. Also, I don't believe that TSP is even an option when you're in traditional Guard / Reserve status.  |
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Generally speaking in my little world it is becoming increasingly difficult for me to trust banking institutions these days.
I am also bearish on the American economy as well...I don't think we're in for a recovery just yet, in fact I believe we've been in a temporary pause in a continuing crash. I continue to be in a defensive mode, and will probably stay that way for the foreseeable future. VLO is the only US stock that I own currently...the rest are all in stocks/ADR's from companies that exist in China, Russia, and and Brazil (I restrict my portfolio to just 6 "buckets" of shares). IMHO, banks do have certain uses, but the most useful service they provide is a bank that allows you to tie your investment account/s together with your savings/checking accounts. That way you can have close access to your money if you need it, but also have a secure place to keep it while doing your research before deploying your cash into another investment. You can also use your bank account to push $ into your IRA (and your spouse's and kids IRA's for that matter) for use as a tax shelter. |
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Dave Ramsey
Keep it simple. Consider a Roth IRA for the first 5k you invest a year if your employer doesn't have 401k match. Invest in good growth mutual funds with low loads(cost to have the mutual fund) with long term track records. |