Ready, Fire, Aim: The Military Retiree Transition Trap
Harper was approaching the end of her career in the military. It’s been a fantastic life so far and extremely fulfilling. She’s well-known as a talented and competent leader, who maintains professional, trusting relationships that elicit respect and a “can-do” attitude from everyone she comes in contact with. With a little anxiety and some hesitation, she finally hit the button. She just submitted her App J. Now what? The military is all she had ever known as an adult.
Having been through TAPS once, she learned about many benefits available to her including a free year of LinkedIn premium! She began a “full-court press” networking campaign. In that last year in the military, as she listed herself “Open to Work” and she made connections with government industry partners, some of whom she had worked alongside while on deployment and on a few test and evaluation periods. A few of those industry partners messaged her, giving her the impression that they were interested in hiring her once she was on terminal leave. “Well, this is encouraging!” she thought.
Once on terminal leave, Harper interviewed with three companies. She thought the interviews all went well, but in the end, only one company called back. That was all she needed, however. And the pay? More than her military pay ever was! “I accept your offer! Thank you!” And with that, Harper felt like she could safely retire from the military while continuing to pay the bills. Plus, she was finally going to have the income she needed to live the life she dreamed of.
Sound familiar?
I’ll start by saying that there is nothing wrong with this type of transition from the military, seriously. This article does not take aim at government industry partners or at the choice for a service member to join an industry partner team after retirement. In fact, if you read this article to the very end, you may even think “yup, I’m still going to make the same choice.” Great! My hope is that you’ll first consider a couple of ideas as you prepare for your transition, learned from my all-time favorite teacher, experience.
For most of my military career, I watched many retirees return to work the week following their retirement having joined the all too famous, “Cammie-to-Khaki” program. I saw it so much I just thought it was normal - that’s just what everyone does. My Air Defense Command and Control community was a small, tight-knit community with very specific skill sets and even more specific equipment. It just made sense that once you learned this craft, you would keep doing it forever. Plus, in the civilian sector, it’s generally frowned upon to shoot down aircraft, so there’s that. Sure, we had a few “weirdos” leave or retire to go into other professions that had nothing to do with the military, but who wanted to be those guys? What would they do and how would they survive? It wasn’t a secret that the pay in the contracting industry was nice. And all you had to do was keep doing the same job you did while in uniform? Maybe travel a little more? Honestly, it seemed like a pretty good opportunity and a logical choice. Throughout most of my career, I settled in with “that’s the plan” … until around 2019.
I can’t say that it was any specific event that triggered my thoughts, but I was suffering with this idea of maintaining such a high personal OPTEMPO. I’d seen its effects on me during tours where sleep was for the weak and you didn’t go home until the work was done. I gained unwanted weight, grew unwanted gray hair, and was unavailable during some critical times in my family’s life. Now, I know I signed up for the military and I’ll never regret that decision; I love the people, the culture, the mission, and I love my country. But here’s the thing – I chose to be a Marine which means I chose a high OPTEMPO. After retirement, would I choose to continue with that tempo? And if so, why? Was the perceived ease at which I could make a decent living as a contractor or government civilian worth the cost of my healthspan, maybe my lifespan, and the subsequent effects on my family? I didn’t know it at the time, but I was developing this idea that “time freedom” was something I valued, and a well-paying job was not worth the cost of giving that up.
Have you ever thought about the guys and gals who never left your hometown? What are they doing today? How do they relate to wider society when they’ve never travelled more than 50 miles from the city center? I think about that sometimes. You might be wondering what this has to do with the military retirement transition trap. Just like the friends you grew up with who can be found in front of the local high school, sitting on the hood of their 1986 Camero wearing their Letterman jacket, I offer that we, military retirees, are similar. It's just a different high school in a different town. We might have seen the world, but our view of what’s available to us outside of the military can be limited. It’s nobody’s fault. There just was never any room in our military vernacular to ask what you’d choose to have your money accomplish for you or if money weren’t a barrier, what would you choose to do. Instead, we move from a life in the miliary that’s always on / always available and carbon copy it right into our next job without considering whether that’s the lifestyle that is right for us. As depicted at the top of the article, not only might we be climbing a longer ladder, we might be climbing the wrong ladder altogether! Again, I am not saying that contracting or government work is wrong or bad – we need military expertise in industry. I am simply saying that it’s worth your time to consider whether this is what you really want to do or what you think you have to do. You DO have a choice in the matter.
The impact of simply moving on to your next job without considering what you would like to do cannot be understated. At retirement, you are somewhere around 45-50 years old. Then you take another potentially high pace job for the next 15-20 years which makes you 60-70 years old. Now you’ve made great money and the work is very rewarding, but you’re in your mid to late 60’s. Having worked a hard life for 40-50 years, putting off the things you wanted to do “until retirement” and now at the age you are, how well do you think you’ll be able to enjoy your savings and pension?
It took nearly 3 years preceding my retirement to whittle down my passions into career, but I did it. I counted myself fortunate that I figured out before I retired that I wanted to be a financial planner. It was a difficult decision; become a contractor and be “financially secure” or start fresh in a new profession and let the income fall where it may. At the time, it felt like I was choosing to take a vow of poverty by entering a completely new profession. I also felt that by doing one, I had to close the door to the other. Fortunately, a close friend gave me wise words; “Q, go try it. If it doesn’t work out in 2-3 years, give me a call. I guarantee you that there will still be a job for you.” (Thanks, Smitty!)
I took his advice and ran. I completed my basic financial planning education, took and passed my Certified Financial Planner® exam, and joined a network of like-minded, fee-only financial planners who give advice to the military – my new tribe. I then participated in a Skillbridge internship as a paraplanner and loved it! The experience was confirming, and I was incredibly happy to continue in the profession of giving financial advice.
At the conclusion of the internship, my plan had been to open a financial planning firm while working part time as a government contractor just to keep the initial business revenue up. I would then shift to full-time business owner once I brought on enough clients to support the business costs. Then it happened; I was offered a salaried job with the same firm I interned with, which in this profession, is rare. Certainly, this was a win-win! Continued mentorship and earning a salary just as my income was going to be cut in half? Sign me up!
Little did I know that while the work was excellent, the salary was great, and the people were fantastic, my decision was doomed from day one. The problem turned out to be quite simple. While I had thought about the fact that I didn’t want to keep up with the pace of the miliary, I never even considered that the pace of civilian life can often run just as fast or faster. Why didn’t I consider that? Well, the simple answer is that my own lack of experience in my desired field and the fear of financial insecurity made it scary to start my own business. Being offered a salary and experience seemed too easy, made me financially comfortable, and I couldn’t think of any risks or problems at the time. But there was a problem. I was yet again caught in this OPTEMPO of work that I had intended not to do and I was feeling the grind again. In short, I wasn’t living out my value of time-freedom and it felt wrong.
It’s a common problem that people who help people are often the last ones to help themselves, so please don’t hold this next part against me. I am a financial planner and when I retired, I failed to do a financial plan for myself. If I would have done one, I may have worked out earlier that I was actually in much better financial shape than I thought. I know that now and I’ve settled into this new line of work, owning my own financial planning firm, with joy and contentment that only comes with being right where I am supposed to be, living out my values. That is not to say that owning a business is easy; it’s not. However, I’ve balanced my life to be able to run, bike, teach, mentor, be an available husband and father, meet people when they need an ear, and still be a business owner. It’s been amazing! Today, I am on a mission to help other military retirees balance their values, too!
Let’s back up to Harper’s story and interrupt her right around the time she submitted her Appendix J, maybe even earlier. Perhaps before making any decisions on what to do after the military, she, and you, might first consider answering these questions to help inform the difference between what you think you have to do and what you want to do:
1. If money were not a barrier, what would you do?
2. What are the things and experiences that are important to you?
3. Will earning money in at your job interfere with what you outlined in questions 1 & 2?
4. Taking into account your pension, how much money does it actually take to do and experience what you want?
5. Is there a better balance of work, money, and your time?
If you want to investigate this idea more, I recommend the book “Die With Zero” by Bill Perkins. The concept of the book is spot on. Spending is not just for retirement. In fact, the balance of spending and saving shifts as you age. In fact, you will likely spend less on the things you want to do in retirement as your health declines.
If you would like to talk to someone about what that looks like, you can always use the contact form on this website, but I would also recommend anyone with the Military Qualified Financial Planner® designation, or any financial planner listed at the Military Financial Advisors Association. We can help you understand the power of your military pension as an enabler to living a life founded on your values. It makes quite the difference in the formula of [guaranteed income – mandatory & priority expenses = your target salary].
Ready. Aim. Fire.
Disclaimer: This article is provided for educational, general information, and illustration purposes only. Nothing contained in the material constitutes tax advice, a recommendation for purchase or sale of any security, or investment advisory services. I encourage you to consult a financial planner, accountant, and/or legal counsel for advice specific to your situation. Read the full disclosure.