Thanks for the replies. I think that's my largest concern right now -- looking short vs. far sighted. My scope is on the immediate. It's very daunting when this comfort level has been your life the past 17 years.

I agree with you, get out now is the better of the two options --

Here is what I found on another forum:

***************************************

Now that TERA (early retirement for 15-20 year folks) is a possibility, I ran some numbers:

Assumptions:
- 2013 DFAS numbers for Maj and Lt Col pay, BAS, BAH, etc.
- 2013 Airline Pilot Central numbers for Delta airlines using monthly guarantee of 65 hours for 12 monthly pay periods
- A-320 FO for years 1 thru 10 at Delta
- A-320 Capt for year 11 until reaching age 65
- 15% of airline pay 401K contributions from Delta
- No airline per diem added
- I used current days dollars....no attempt at adjusting for inflation, future valuation, etc....todays $ for the entire calculation
- I know there are probably 69 variables I could try to account for, but my goal wasn't to spend every waking hour creating an elaborate excel doc, I just wanted to look at the big picture with regards to $....can't factor in QOL, etc.

Option 1: 17 year Maj at 41.225% of base pay (% determined by TERA formula), Delta schedule stated above
Option 2: 20 year Lt Col at 50% of base pay then Delta schedule stated above

Upon reaching age 65:
Option 1 total earnings: $4,768,179. Winner by $304,524.
Option 2 total earnings: $4,463,654


If by leaving the military at the 17 year point, the extra 3 years of airline seniority allows you to hold Int'l wide body Capt for only your final 3 years at the airline (Option 1) but stay a A-320 Capt for all of Option 2, the new totals are:

Option 1: $4,924,257. Winner by $460,602.
Option 2: $4,463,654

The above numbers only account for reaching age 65 when the airline money stops but the military retirement would continue (I assume....who knows considering what is going on right now), so the higher Lt Col retirement would start playing catch up.

The difference between 17 year Maj retirement and 20 year Lt Col retirement is approx. $1200/ month, so:

In the first scenario (Option 1 winner by $304,542) / $1200 it would take 253 months (a little over 21 years), so break even would occur at age 86.

In the second scenario (Option 1 winner by $460,602) / $1200, it would take 383 months (31.9 years), so age 96.9 is the break even age.

*********************************************

For my calculations, I'm also looking at the strong possibility of landing a job with my chief pilot cousin who works for a Fortune 500 company here in Texas -- Challenger 300's starting at $120K a year, caps out at about $150. He LOVES his QOL, and that salary is on par with a Legacy FO.

Talked to him last night, viewing the Flt Dept on Thursday with a resume in hand…