Hello!

I heard you on ChooseFI podcast and wanted to reach out to you.  My husband and I are both AD military (he’s a LDO LTJG).  We are literally sitting where you were at [when you described] your crossroads. Husband will reach 16 years in Feb, as I will in June. We began our journey to FI two years ago when he  commissioned and had to do a stint geo-bach to Diego Garcia, leaving me in Naples with a little girl to raise.

We both realized that we were sacrificing too much and needed to make a change, but like you, we were in ‘too deep’ and could not turn our back on the pension … Since I am new to your blog I may not have gotten to the post discussing your golden savings number to allow you to not have to work a job after retirement.

We both will be receiving pensions (if we can make it the next 4) and have been aggressive the last two years and have paid off a home in San Diego while renting out another one. Curious to see what you believe our ultimate savings goal should be so we can set our goal appropriately to include perspective pensions. I plan on retiring as a Senior Chief and my husband worse case would be a O3E.

Sorry for being long winded. Enjoy your blog!

Ilyana