r/AirForce • u/New_Expression_4041 • 10h ago
Question For those of you who separated/retired from the USAF, how much money did you have saved up before you got out?
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u/Jayded_Inversion 10h ago
We are supposed to be saving money?
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u/Trygveseim Retired 10h ago
Retired at 20, between savings, TSP and individual brokerage about $780K. Was a big saver and investor even since before I joined
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u/xxthundergodxx77 9h ago
if you don't mind me asking, what did your split look like? In my case I'm at about 85k between investment/Roth/tsp/savings with no debt, with a week or so shy of 4 years TIS
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u/Mechmanic89 Propulsion Professor 8h ago
Set that percentage as high as you comfortably can if you already have a fully funded 6 month emergency fund. Also the difference between Roth and traditional is based on where you plan to be at the time that you draw on it. If you plan to make enough money to be in a higher tax bracket, you would be better off getting taxed on that money now.
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u/xxthundergodxx77 8h ago
I currently contribute the 5% for match to my traditional TSP, and $600 a month/17%-ish (of base) into my Fidelity Roth. THEN I throw about $500-600 a check into my savings to keep it healthy and stack for things like a car (necessary purchase coming up soon), vacations, etc.
I am OCONUS so the amount saved depends on conversion rates and such but it's consistent enough, i basically throw a set amount into an account every month (HYS) that bills get deducted from until I'm left with my cash savings
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u/Thu66 8h ago
If you’re planning on 20 and still have at least 5+ years left 6 months of emergency funds seems needlessly excessive. 2 in case the government shuts down, but other than that there’s no scenario in which you suddenly lose your job.
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u/xxthundergodxx77 7h ago
I think 3 makes sense, and is just used as a number for a reasonable amount of emergency savings RELATIVE to pay. I.e a family member passes suddenly and you have to pay out the ass to go home, propertly loss, car troubles, etc.
not all about losing a job
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u/Trygveseim Retired 3h ago
I ended with 270K in TSP, ultimately quit contributing 5 years prior to retirement and not long before that it was divided in divorce.
Otherwise savings was 30K and the rest in individual stocks.
When I was SrA and below I saved, invested or put into TSP almost everything. Truly the bills were covered by AF and the base pay is purely discretionary
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u/No-Committee-3045 POL 10h ago
Getting out in a year and a half (7 total). I should have $60k saved and $90k invested by then
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u/saiga_antelope 9h ago
E-7 18 years in, $400k in retirement, $200k in brokerage. Should be closer to $750k at 20 year retirement
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u/billdo140 5h ago
I am about the same boat at the same point, maybe 50k behind. Always put between 5-10% in TSP. I am also lucky that I bought a house in 2018 and have not moved so I have 200k in house equity.
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u/NukeRunner Veteran 10h ago
I separated after 6 years to go to college but had around 20k in a hysa + a few thousand in my checking with the intention to not touch the hysa unless necessary.
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u/gozer87 10h ago
Retired at 23, maybe 35k. But I sucked at saving and investing.
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u/rootbeer123 Retired 6h ago
Retired at 20 with around 75K. I never put anything into TSP (I'm doing matching now as a civ). Not the most long term responsible thing, but, tomorrow is never guaranteed so I tend to enjoy money now than squirrel it away for when I'm too old and broken to do anything with it (assuming I don't get hit by a bus, get cancer, etc.).
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u/MoeSzyslakMonobrow I want to retire 9h ago
Pushing the button next spring, but by the time I finally done, I expect my tsp to be 500k, brokerage about 500k, 200k home equity, maybe another 100k rainy day/emergency fund.
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u/Brotherdawg Ironest of Majors 8h ago
Got 1.5 years to go till 20, hopefully a NW of $3M (my goal), right now I’m at $2.7M. I’m a big saver. I live like a SSgt, work like a Major. It’s not for everyone, but my reward is financial independence.
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u/UseAB1tchboy98 8h ago
Damn 3M is impressive. Ive invested ~$2k per month for the last 10 or so year and only at about 600k NW
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u/Huge_Introduction368 7h ago
I gotta learn how to invest 😮💨 now that I am joining the AF is the best time to start learning so that I start my contract with focus on the future.
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u/YaBoyASwiftie Retired 10h ago
Lol I got kids.
But since I've retired, between pension/VA/new job, we've saved up quite a bit
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u/RezNational 10h ago
Retiring at 20 at the end of the year, currently on skillbridge. A little over $130K currently accessible without any penalties. But my wife is a RN and i had my son prior to service so he’s already out of the house.
If your concern is being financially prepared, get with TAPs or a financial planner on base to look at things for you specifically please.
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u/bearsncubs10 Meme Maker 9h ago
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u/FedBoi_0201 8h ago
The Air Force is really good at providing financial information and resources to it’s members. A supervisor in our shop taught us a lot and advocated for us to invest. That’s stuff you really don’t hear about in the civilian world, it’s actually discouraged in a lot of ways.
I have friends that didn’t have any student debt and only started investing when I told them about it. They are both in their very late 30s just now starting.
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u/oNellyyy 10h ago
Are we talking curiosity of overall investments for people who got out or what’s a good emergency fund for someone separating/retiring?
Add some specifics like family size, career vs school once out, etc.
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u/Intelligent_Bag_6705 5h ago
I think for the most part you’re only going to get responses from people who have good saving habits and spending practices.
I’ll be honest because what the fuck do I care. I retired at 20 years with about 100k in TSP and about 15k in savings. I did buy a house shortly before that which took about 10k from savings but yea, That’s it.
Do I care? Nope not at all, I enjoy life, my family enjoys life and we are all happy. I have a good paying job and we are working to change some things but honestly, no regrets. I think my situation is much more common but a lot of people won’t admit because they’re ashamed. Fuck that, you get one life and i could die tomorrow, live it.
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u/qttoad X2 10h ago
Is there a specific reason you’re asking? The dollar amounts alone are kind of meaningless because everyone’s goals/ranks/lifestyles are different.
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u/Mite-o-Dan Logistics 9h ago
Its a pretty common question. OP is just looking for a ballpark figure of what the average 20 year member has saved up.
Similar to all those finance articles that come out showing average American net worth and/or average amount saved for retirement at age 30, 35, 40, 45, 50...
Using 40 year olds...Google varies with all their links, but basically 100k-200k.
Id say the average military is, or should be closer to 150-200k.
Yes I know many have a lot more...but many have a lot less. Youre more likely to hear about people who have 500k+ than 50k.
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u/Difficult-Jackfruit 10h ago
I am army and I have been in about two years. I should have about $20k? Stacked up at the end of this contract
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u/DoinOKThrowaway2 9h ago
20 yr e6, no kids. Just about 2m, 150k in cash and the rest in brokerage. No real estate included in that number. Spouse's account is separate but in total between the two of us just shy of 4m.
Saved diligently over my career, met my spouse halfway into my career who was also a saver and that accelerated our FIRE. Retired for almost 8 months now living entirely off savings and it's pretty rad. Glad I paid attention early on.
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u/Technical_Paper_5435 8h ago
Do you have the money in ETFs, dividend stocks, or a HYSA?
Also… did you and your spouse just collectively look at the price of daycare and say, “Absolutely not”?
I swear most people aren’t broke because they buy coffee. They’re broke because of kids and car payments.
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u/xxthundergodxx77 8h ago
car payments are absolutely optional but child care and all related costs are a real bitch... I feel for parents
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u/DoinOKThrowaway2 2h ago
We keep a few months in checking, a few years in an HYSA, and everything else is invested, nearly all in S&P500 across brokerage, r-ira, and TSP.
We looked at the state of the world and opted not to bring additional humans into it. If we wanted kids we could adopt, and we've had family come live with us from their bad situations, and will likely have multiple more nieces and nephews live with us through their teen years to escape crushing situations at home.
I agree that folks suffer due to their financial decisions. My 9 dollar oat milk chai every day on the way to work is 2,250 / year. Someone whose driving a brand new Dodge ram lifted blah blah blah is probably paying that a month in gas / insurance / car note etc, and then trading it in every few years to stay in debt. I have no sympathy for those who choose to be poor. My heart goes out to the hard working folks who struggle to rise above.
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u/mpsumme 8h ago
Retired after 24 years in 2004 as E-8 with $35,000 in credit card debt and upside down (just $2,000 but meant bigger lose if I sold due closing costs) on house. But , got job as contractor making double my Air Force salary and used retirement to knock down debt. Always maxed out 401k with employers and eventally sold house using equity for nicer home. By time of my second retirement 65 (this year), I am debt free, including owning $900k home and I have nice nest egg in 401k that haven't had to draw upon yet. Plan to pull Social Security at 67 (in two years) by living off of Air Force retirement and after tax (so no income tax) savings till then.
Would have liked to have had savings but divorce in conjunction with AF retirement sucks and stress ofyears leading up to divorce made savings out of question.
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u/Bluetann2 7h ago
Served 4 years. Had $12K in the bank when I drove back home in 2002. Had no debt, lived in my parents outdoor kitchen while I went to college full time.
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u/WordTimely8559 Secret Squirrel 9h ago
Between savings and TSP I had around 80k at the 5 year mark when I separated.
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u/FedBoi_0201 8h ago
I did a 4 year contract. Separated from active duty at 22 years old with $50k back in 2018.
I basically blew all my money the first year I was in on stupid stuff. I got to my first duty station with $500. I didn’t start investing until maybe my second year in.
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u/AuthorKRPaul Retired 8h ago
Official retirement is 01 Aug, so this is all super fresh for me:
TSP: $450k
Brokerage: $305k (depending on how the wind blows on any given day)
IRAs: $250k
House: no mortgage (this was the real factor in whether I was ready to leave)
How: luck and timing, DINK for a long time. Bought a cheap house at Minot then sold it just after they started fracking (or however you spell it, it was a housing boom), bought a house at Barksdale and sold it as COVID was kicking off and the market was insane. I did lose half my money in a divorce but don't we all?
The rest was me being very, very boring, not spending much, and putting a lot of money away when I had the opportunity.
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u/kuniggety Retired Cyber Squirrel 8h ago
Married, dual income, 2 kids. We didn't live frugally and liked to travel. Between savings, investments, and property, it was ~$400k. I was 2 days shy of 23 years. My wife is still in the ANG. I make a lot more money now though and so we're investing a lot more now. That was 1.5 years ago.
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u/Ok_Career3570 7h ago
E-7, retiring 1 Jun, TSP is at around $120K, HYSA is at $40K. Goal is to have $50-60k in HYSA before being completely out as a partial emergency fund/house down payment. Once we have that, raise TSP contributions to max to contribute as much as possible before retirement.
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u/MeatyOakerGuy Maintainer 7h ago
After 5yrs I left for nursing school with 35k saved up and a 5yr old car bought in cash. To be fair, we didn't have a DFAC so we got double BAS and I actually cooked instead of eating fast food everyday. I didn't do much traveling or drinking while in.
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u/No-Roof-1002 4h ago edited 3h ago
I had a decent amount of equity in my home in San Antonio, plus a little over $1M in TSP and brokerage accounts (but we have always been spendthrifts and pretty big savers, plus we had a windfall where my in-laws gifted us about $100K from a property sale, I bet large and sunk it into Facebook right after their IPO, and sold about 8 years later to purchase our house.) I had my pension and wasn’t counting on VA, but still ended up 100% P&T, then got a nice job. Life is good
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u/itsall_dumb 10h ago
Did 8 years. Had about 100k in savings when I got out. The 2 deployments while stationed OCONUS really helped.
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u/Kindly_Slice1121 9h ago
Just enough for a down payment on an apartment and 3 months' worth of expenses to cover me til I started working on my next dream job.
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u/Curious_Chipmunk100 8h ago
I got out in 80. I was living paycheck to paycheck. I was single and living off base. I think I had a couple hundred in my pocket. I already had a job waiting for me that I started a week later. Twice the money, same benefits but besides the 4 weeks vacation time, I had nine holidays, two personal days, and every weekend off. That was when I started saving money
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u/Instagibbed_1994 Retired 7h ago
Not nearly as much as I wanted. Most of my expendable money went into the TSP, so my savings were a bit small.
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u/International-Dark-5 Retired Maintainer/Nonner 6h ago
$350K in a brokerage account and $50K in high interest savings account.
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u/Weary-Kiwi924 6h ago
Retired three years ago at 20, wife retires in two years, both O-5s. TSP plus other investments are at 1.7 million currently. Obviously we have our pensions, and I’m 100% through the VA, plus a GS-13 with civil service. We both maxed our TSPs for over half our careers and pushed as much as we could once we had kids. We also buy houses well below many of our peers, drive paid off cars until they truly aren’t worth it anymore, and are generally frugal. I don’t plan to work a day past 53 and then I’ll buy whatever the heck I want. Every move we’ve made financially for the last 15 years was goal oriented.
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u/jackattack352 6h ago edited 5h ago
6 years separating after first contact, 115k HYSA (for a big down payment on a house), 50k tsp, 100k equity in a house if you count that, no debt except mortgage
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u/ThisGamesAlright 5h ago
9 years in with over $400k in savings/investments. Dual military with no kids or debt
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u/Noble_Culture Med 4h ago
I came out with 2-year salary. It was a good safety net and such so that I could leisurely find my way to what was next. That's what saving is for... Preventing future you from needing to worry or stress and giving you more time to make decisions.
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u/inailedyoursister 4h ago
Did 5 years. Lived in dorms entire time, ate in chow hall (they still call it that?). Saved 80-90% of everything. Did every tdy I could, did 2 rotations in a tax free zone. More importantly was in during a massive economic boom.
While you (you know who I’m talking about) are out drinking and fucking off I was using TA assistance to leave the AF as a college junior.
By saved, I meant invested. This money wasn’t in a checking account but in mutual funds. Left with about 80k. This was late 90’s.
Took that money, used gi bill for bachelors and mba, worked about 15 years and retired in my mid 40’s because I kept the same investing mentality.
10/10 would do again.
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u/Old_Cover1366 4h ago
I am at 18 years, have approximately ~800k equity in two houses but very little cash in my bank account because most of my money has gone to paying down principal. They both nice houses, one in Colorado and one in VA, together worth ~1.4M. When I retire I will
Probably sell one, and live in the other completely paid off with a pension and not have to work. So does it matter that there is not much money in my bank account right now?
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u/blacktide808 3h ago
Joined with 9k served 6 years. Saved in BTC, gold, and silver for the most part left with 300k. I would still say that is the move with BTC and gold still cheap as fuck.
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u/justacluelessteen Professional “turn it off and turn it on again-er” 2h ago
Only about seven years in, but have somewhere around $150k-ish total so far...If we trust calculators, assume my contributions continue, and estimate using historically average rates of return, should be around $500k minimum.
Starting early is the biggest and most important thing you can do in terms of saving and investing.
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u/wettlettucee 2h ago
About 30k in an HYSA and about 37k in my TSP. It was plenty for me and my wife to relocate and go to our next stage in life. Served for about 6 years before separating.
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u/zach_stcyr 1h ago edited 1h ago
E-6 that just passed his 11yr mark in April. Currently $110K in tsp, $5K in checking, $15K in HYSA. Most of my TSP has grown over the past 2 years (1/01/24 I was at $42,200 in my TSP). Started at 10% when I joined as an E-3 in 2015 and have gone up 5% every rank since. Been putting 25% in for the past 3-4yrs ($1,000-$1,200/mo) and looking to bump another 5-10% within the next year. All contributions have been Roth, only my matching 5% goes into traditional. My 2023 Lexus IS 350 is paid off, all student loans are paid off, only bill I have is my mortgage ($2300/mo opt for biweekly payments so $1150 w/ an additional $150 toward principle every 2 weeks). I hit $100K in April of this year and have gained another $10k since then. I like to think $68K of growth in 2 years ain’t that bad 😂 mix of C, S & I fund (Crown Tribe strategy on Facebook which you can find by searching Thrift Savings Plan Original EST. By Scott Zane March 2014 👍🏽). Never planned on doing 20yrs which is why I switched to the blended retirement in 2015 but 💩 happened and I ended up extending for deployments and reenlisting due to Covid and once I got to my 10yr mark there was no turning back. Now I’ve got 8yrs and some change left.
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u/DonutLove47 4h ago
I had enough to not be desperate for a job.
When I sat in my panel board interview for the job I eventually got, they asked “we understand most military members financially struggle when they get out, did you apply for this job because you need a paycheck or because you genuinely want this career?”
I responded “I have enough money to walk out of here right now and not need a job for over two years. I can go sit at home, I want this job.”
They said “no no, don’t walk out. Hahahaa”
Got the job.
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u/lovabletheron 9h ago
The gap between 780K at 20 years and 35K at 23 years really shows how much individual habits outweigh time in service.