Author Topic: Soon to be military retiree seeks advice.  (Read 1906 times)

cpostache

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Soon to be military retiree seeks advice.
« on: May 03, 2015, 11:53:41 AM »
Hello! 

I am a 35 year old E-7 in the military who will retire in five years.  My SAH wife is 30 and we have two children; 5 yo and 2 yo.  We are currently stationed in Europe and hope to get assigned in the United States for my final tour.  If I retire as an E-7, my retirement pay should be around $1500-$1700 after taxes and SBP.

We currently have the following debt:

$2000 credit card (down from more than $20k soon after our marriage 7 years ago)
$16000 auto loan
$93000 15 yr mortgage (12 yr remaining) for home purchased two duty stations ago.  It has paid for itself over the last three years and I feel as though it will continue to.  We pay $80 of the mortgage after the property manager takes his 8%.

Current expenses:
$1600 for rental house (including all utilities)  This is an average as costs vary wildly due to currency exchange rates.
$1400 in day-to-day costs for my family while I'm away.  I feel like my wife could spend far less.  We're working on that!  She has been reluctant for the last 7 years, but is coming around.
$200 (high estimate) per month for my expenses.  I'm at-sea often and spend very little when we are in port.
$90 per month auto insurance.

After all of the expenses listed above, I have a surplus of approximately $2300 per month.  I am contributing $500 per month to ROTH TSP.  I plan to increase this significantly once I've paid off our remaining credit debt this month.  How much I increase it by largely depends on the advice I receive from you all!

Should I max out TSP?  Concentrate on paying off the auto and mortgages?  A combination of both?

If we get follow-on orders to the US, my wife plans to begin working.  She's thinking nursing or dental assistant.  Not the most high paying jobs, but something she is interested in and that will allow us to put away even more.

I've ran some basic numbers and feel like with the pension that I will receive once I retire, continued health care coverage from TRICARE, presumed follow-on employment for me and my wife, it doesn't seem unreasonable that we could become financially independent within 15 years.  Perhaps even reach early retirement status.

What should I do?  Thank you all!

nic1

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Re: Soon to be military retiree seeks advice.
« Reply #1 on: May 03, 2015, 01:01:01 PM »
I would focus on paying off credit card debt first.  After that depends on what your interest rate is on your auto loan and mortgage and how comfortable you are carrying those payments. 
I personally would probably keep the mortgage and max out your TSP every year.  My husband and I have always maxed my 401k but just recently started putting more in his TSP.  It is a phenomenal benefit and you would have five years to take advantage of it. The fees and performance of the funds in the TSP are soooo much better than my 401k. I wish we would have done this five years ago when we started really investing.   My husband has 10 years left till planned military retirement and barring any huge financial emergencies we plan to max the TSP until then.  He will probably work another 5 years civilian and then like you are planning we should be able to both retire if desired. 

Catbert

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Re: Soon to be military retiree seeks advice.
« Reply #2 on: May 03, 2015, 02:57:33 PM »
Pay off the CC in May! 

How high is your interest rate on your car?  If it's 6% or higher then I would concentrate on paying off the car.  Sub-6% then I would probably split the $2300 a month between car payment and TSP.

I wouldn't think about paying extra on the mortgage until you are consistently maxing out TSP.  Even then I probably wouldn't, but it becomes more debatable then.