Originally Posted by
Duffman
Also, because I'm still in the AFR and I was curious, I used a 401k calculator to figure out roughly how much 12 years of airline work is worth, in terms of retirement. 16% contribution at an average of 150k/yr, starting age 30, retiring at 42, with inflation matching wage growth, 6% growth, life expectancy of 85, it's $1.3M in retirement. So yeah, I'm not gonna pass up on that for the BRS, while being stationed in a rural meth town, for less money than a regional captain.
You make some good points. I myself went (navy) reserve and gave up an AD retirement about half way to 20 in order to take advantage of the civilian hiring boom. With that said, after nearly 20 years in, half of it AD and half reserves while flying 121, the grass isn't always greener on the other side. Make your decisions carefully. If you're an academy grad with a nearly 100% chance of getting to O6, if you enjoy the flying you do and can't match it out of uniform (i.e., landing on a carrier or flying a viper full time), if you fly certain airframes that can guarantee spending most of your career in nice locations with free/subsidized housing (like North Island, Point Mugu, Kaneohe Bay or Whidbey Island), and/or if you value having a safety net that starts immediately, stay on AD.
Frankly, the airline world is so cyclical and so volatile that as great as those financial numbers you ran sound, it could all be up in the air if something you can't control leads to a furlough. The 2000's were a pretty good example of this, with the combined 9/11 and recession effects on hiring for almost a decade. The nice thing about AD is if those other things I mentioned are true, you put in 20 years, retire in your early 40's as an O6 making $5,000/month guaranteed for the rest of your life plus another 20+ years left for a second career at an airline, and by that point in your career (unless you are rotor) you'll go straight to a mainline carrier and skip the regionals. AND unlike your reserve retiree compadres who can't collect their reserve pension until 60 (and who will have a significantly smaller military pension), you're banking that $5k/month either way, rain or shine, even if you're all furloughed. If you have a family or plan on having a family, having that financial guarantee that isn't dependent on the market, the industry or the economy is pretty nice when you have to pay for your kids' schooling and your mortgage. Yes, BRS is kind of lame and I'm glad I am High-3, but even with 40% instead of 50% at 20, staying AD either way is like insuring yourself against a furlough if and when you do go to the airlines. Just food for thought.
Final thing to say - when you're young, you think you're invincible and that is especially true as a young pilot. If you leave AD and get medical issues as a civilian pilot, even while as a reservist, it could end your career a lot earlier than you thought, and without a pot to urinate in. If you stay AD and something happens to you, especially something out of your control and/or unexpected, you'll get a service connected disability and probably a medical retirement from the military with a pension for life. You don't get this as a 121 pilot and reservist (unless you were injured while on ADOS/T10 etc), and if you have a family or want one, this is yet another safety net.