What Is One Year Of Your Life Worth?

[volstateguy]

I'm hoping for some objective views from some of you guys who are already retired and living in the Philippines, or even those of you who are close to retiring and making the move. I've been on the fence between retiring spring of 2013 and spring of 2014 for sometime. (2013 gives me 21 years active duty in the Air Force). For the most part I've had my mind made up to stick it out to 2014 giving me 22 years and thus 55% retirement. However I find myself increasingly frustrated with all BS we put up with in the military these days....and I'm not talking about deployments....I'm not married and I enjoy deployments. It's all the other BS, I guess I've just had enough. So that, coupled with having someone special waiting on me in Cebu, has me leaning towards 2013. So to question of "what is one year of your life worth"? I just found a military pay retirement calculator. You enter your time in service, date of rank, and date of retirement....and it gives you your gross monthly retirement pay. So after doing that, the difference between 21 and 22 for me works out to about $125 a month. What would you guys do? Is it worth $125 a month to you for another year grinding away? Would you cash it in and enjoy life or stick it out for one more year? I know can survive either way, the extra $125 would just be a little extra cushion that I would set aside.

Opinions anyone? Thanks guys.

Edited May 18, 2012 by volstateguy

[OnMyWay]

You are a young guy and that 125 / mo will be paid for many years to come. Tough choice but I think I would stick it out.

If you want to get technical, you can find annuity calculators online that will tell you the cash value of that 125 / mo when applied to your life expectancy. You will find that it is quite a chunk of change.

Good luck and thank you for your many years of service!

:cheers:

[i am bob]

OnMyWay - what you say is so true! But on the flip side, is that $125 a month before taxes worth the frustration as well as being apart from a special young lady for another year? That's the joy of retiring at a young age! Sometimes it's better to give a little...

The only real answer IMHO is do you think you will need that $125 eventually to make life comfortable or will what you are going to get now enough to be happy with?

[Tukaram (Tim)]

For $125 a month more I might be inclined to tough out one more year. I played with the retirement calculator for my job and it takes at least 5 years to make any noticeable difference... so I am opting for early 2013 (just to give my family one more Christmas with me)

But if you talk yourself into one more year... how much would it be for one more after that... and another... :mocking:

[OldUgly&Cranky]

Volstateguy i wont pretend to give that kind of advice because that's only something you can decide for yourself !! but in my eyes i don't think $125 isn't going to get that much more in a year or two with the way the economy is going these days !! too be honest we get Canada pension and old age pension here and there is a supplement if you don't meet the minimum amount but that only = too maybe $ 2000 a month i know because my parents are getting that and on top of that my old man took out his rrps to to fix his house and lost 10k in taxes , but that's another long story !!!

myself im looking into having a small piece of land with a cow or 2 a few pigs and some chickens and a small veggie garden so i would have our daily needs , i don't think i can even count on the pension that supposed to be coming to me to buy as much as it did !! so you have to look after your self and still collect whats owed to you !! and do the best you can !!!

On a side note i just wanted to say i really respect all you active and retired soldiers i come from a long line of them i had a great grandfather in ww1 royal navy , i had a grandfather in ww2 merchant navy and a great uncle who was a tail gunner in a Lancaster bomber , and recently a cousin severed a 9 month tour in Afghanistan and he was only 22 years old !! thankfully returned home safe , !!!

anyway i'm sorry if i rambled on and didnt get too much to your question !!! and sorry if i seem negative !!!!

O-U-C

Edited May 18, 2012 by OldUgly&Cranky

[jode]

If you don't stick out the extra year you will have the rest of your life here thinking how nice it would be to have an extra 5,000 pesos a month. A year seems long when you are waiting and looking forward to something, but a few years in future it will seem like it was a short time to wait for the tens of thousands of dollars extra it means for you in your lifetime.

Do military personel still get the 30 days leave a year? Maybe a nice 30 day trip to Philippines halfway through your year would make the wait more tolerable. If you want to save money on the trip it is still possible to fly into Clark on space A military flights. Usually they go through Guam or Japan.

Don't forget that your special someones family will eventually expect some financiaI support so waiting an extra year is for them also. I find that I spend more money than I thought i would here. I find it hard to imagine how guys get by on a bare bones budget indefinetly. I think that skrimping can get old after awhile and you don't want a retirenment always worrying about money.

I believe on average there is more money lost than made by expats trying to earn extra money when they come here. Good luck and make sure the right head is influencing your decisions.

[billten]

Hmmm, tough one man. I probably would stick it out, i am always short of cash at the end of the month so the extra would probably make a big difference.

[sjp52]

I think some of the answer will be in how much you will be getting now ( I dont want to know ) and if you will be comfortable with that amount. Some one getting say 1200 a month would really appreciate that 125 raise on the other hand if you are getting 2000 a month then it will not make as much difference. By the way I have been retired for 2 and a half years and it is fantastic ( not trying to rub it in ).

[sjp52]

One other thing. If you ask most people today if they could use extra cash each month the answer 99 % of the time will be yes. We never have enough

[TheMason]

I'd go in 2013. You never know what the future holds. If your current pension is sufficient to meet your needs, why delay the next stage of your life?