My friend Angela over at Tread Lightly Retire Early wrote a post recently that inspired this one. It was a post about her most popular posts of 2018, based on total views. To be fair she didn’t start the trend, but I saw it on her blog first.
I thought this would be a good thing to emulate, especially since my followership has grown recently and most of you have probably never seen a lot of these posts. So here are my Top Ten Posts of 2018, as determined by the amount of views they received.
10. The Problem With “Choose A Job You Love And You Will Never Work A Day In Your Life”
So, what? We are going to tell people to find a job they love so they never have to work…and then all those who aren’t doing something they love are just some poor saps? Really? And our advice to them is just keep looking for a job they love instead of, I dunno, doing something that makes work optional?”
This is the most recent post on my Top 10 list. I wrote it after seeing many people give the (IMO) bad advice that people just need to find their dream job and then they won’t have to worry about financial independence. Financial independence isn’t about leaving a bad job. It can help with that, but that’s not why people should do it. And it’s just cold-hearted (again, IMO) to basically tell people the solution to their problems is something most people will never find.
9. A Civilian’s Guide To Understanding Military Pay And Allowances
This post will be useful for the following audience (I feel like I’m writing a thesis!):
- New military members who don’t understand military pay yet
- Civilians who work with the military
- Non-military spouses and family members of military members
- Civilians who want to better understand how the military is paid”
You ever see those memes comparing the salaries of military members and McDonald’s employees? Yeah, they are inaccurate. This post didn’t start as a response to them, but it proves the point pretty well, I think!
8. Have You Heard Of DOD Skillbridge?
Basically, this is a program that allows transitioning service members (whether they are retiring or separating) to spend their last 6 months in uniform doing civilian job and employment training, including apprenticeships and internships.
Planning to transition out of the military and get a new job? Then this is definitely something you should look into!”
I wrote this post because there is very, very little information about this program on the internet. I thought compiling what information I could find would be helpful to readers. Read the comments – there is some additional information there!
7. Retiring On An Enlisted Military Pension
Most people know that enlisted members earn less than officers with the same number of years of service. This is obviously going to have a big impact on a military pension for retirees. Two military members, one who has always been enlisted and the other who has served as an officer, are going to have dramatically different monthly pension payments.
So the question becomes, just how feasible is it to retire on an enlisted military pension?”
In 2017 I wrote several case studies on the feasibility of actually being able to retire on a military pension. Luckily I got two enlisted members to participate. Obviously most enlisted pensions are much smaller than most officer pensions, so it was exciting to see how they were planning to make it work!
6. Q&A: Credit Card Military Waivers and Churning Plan
The credit card companies that offer special benefits to military members can be hard to pin down. Just try to find a comprehensive policy! So I wrote down what I’d discovered so far. I also laid out what my card churning plan was at the time.
Credit card rules change frequently, so keep that in mind when reading this or any other post about credit cards!
5. Opting In To The Blended Retirement System – Step By Step Instructions
No surprise that this post was popular in 2018, although I think future views will go down dramatically now lol. There were a lot of views in December, especially, as people realized time was running out.
4. Military Discounts For Walt Disney World: Part 1
Disney supports the U.S. military in many ways, and one of those ways is through some truly great military discounts.”
Disney is expensive, no doubt, but it can be less expensive for military members if you learn about all the military discounts. The information in this post is from 2017, so you will need to check out the current prices for 2019. Hmmm…maybe I need to update this.
3. Is It Possible To Retire On Just A Military Pension?
So, is it really possible for someone to retire on a military pension? Spoiler alert: yes.”
This was actually my first case study, and in it I analyzed myself. I broke down what a budget could look like for me if I retired as an O-5 at 20 years. Actually seeing the numbers was surprising. I’ve always kept my spending under the O-5 pension range, knowing I wanted to be able to stop working for pay after the military. But I’d never written out a real, to-the-penny budget. It turned out better than I thought, to be honest!
2. REI Garage Sale Tips and Tricks
If you’ve ever been to an REI Garage Sale, you might know there are some tricks to a successful shopping experience. If you haven’t been to an REI Garage Sale, then let me tell you – they can be a whole lot of awesome, or a whole lot of pain.”
Honestly, it has surprised me how popular this post has been since I wrote it. But people love a deal! If you’ve never been to an REI Garage Sale, check this post out. I give you all my best ideas for making sense of what can be a hectic event. I’ve used these ideas for several years now and not only have I built up my outdoor gear closet at low prices, I’ve also been able to resale some of the items for much more than I bought them for. Product flipping side hustle, anybody?
1. Off Duty Employment For Military Members
Some of you may be thinking “Why do I have to get permission to work during my off duty time?”
Well, there are a few reasons.”
Whoa. When I wrote this post, I thought I’d be helping out a few people occasionally. I didn’t realize thousands of people would want this information! It really shows that military members are looking to improve their financial situation by increasing their income. I’m all for that! Just make sure you follow the rules so you don’t get in any trouble. This post will help you through the process.
It’s so interesting to read these top posts lists. It will be interesting to see how many people read about BRS now that the opt in period has passed. I expect those top few are going to be hard to topple for those top spots though.
I think I’ll still get some views on the BRS posts as people go “now, how does this thing work?” But very, very few people will have the opportunity to opt in ever again so that particular post should fall into dustballs soon.