Wow, after reading all these, I feel like I'm really behind the curve. Looks like I need to go get a JD or a software engineering degree to catch up. It's not a race, I know, but I want to FIRE really bad.
Currently:
Title: Advanced Distributed Learning Specialist (I make e-learning courses for the military as a contractor)
Salary: $64,000
Education: BA in English, MA in Education
Age: 28
Experience: <1 year
Also, I'm an Air Force Reservist
Title: 1st Lieutenant, Public Affairs Officer, USAFR
Salary: ~$15,000 per year for the minimum 12 weekends plus 2 weeks during the summer, then some intangibles on top of that
Experience: 3 years
Here are past numbers, just for kicks:
Title: High School English Teacher in Rural Missouri
Salary: $36,000
Experience: 2 years
Title: Staff Sergeant, Air National Guard Munitions Systems
Salary: ~$10,000, plus benefits for 12 weekends and 2 weeks during the summer
Experience: 5 years
In the past, I've also worked at Domino's Pizza, worked at a hardware store, worked at the supermarket, worked on campus during college, do farm work during the summer, and publish on Amazon KDP and do some other online stuff, and all of those were in the $20,000-$30,000 range, tops. Domino's was a decent $15 per hour, which was nice as a college student. Still feel like I'm scraping by, although my savings rate is around 75%.
ADLS! You bastard! ;)
I'm a GS-12 paper pusher for the Army and a cyberspace engineer in the AL ANG. Is there anything you can do to cut out all the pretty graphics and other overhead so we can get through a 30-minute class in under 3 hours? It's hard sharing a T1 with 100 other people on a drill weekend.
Have you considered going semi-FIRE and keeping your reserve job? Lifetime cost savings are huge, and it could cut your initial NW requirement in half.
I'm looking at quitting FT work next year and drilling for another 6 to make 20.
Awesome suggestions - I've actually thought the semi-FIRE idea before since it takes such a big bite out of the NW needed, but I'd like to have a bigger 'stash before I pull the plug. I figure that even if I reach FIRE before I hit my 20, I'll continue to drill anyway.
And right there with you on the ADLS - I've dealt with ADLS constantly in my 8 years in the ANG and USAFR and I've hated how poorly designed the materials on there are too... Cyberawareness Challenge is everybody's terrible perennial fave to hate on since the material is common sense and the videos hog so much bandwidth. No telling how many hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent designing and developing that damn useless thing.
That said, I think the general trend is positive - a lot of the old first-generation CBTs were made by the lowest bidder (apparently with PowerPoint '98) and are reaching the end of their "serviceable lifecycles," and new stuff should be rolling out over the next few years, course by course.
I actually do ADLS strictly for the Coast Guard, though, so I won't be able to improve any of the AF or DOD courses :(
If only I could get one of those cush GS jobs... :D