4 years (6?) 🫣 left and I’m in. I lean toward aggressive strategies with my investing, wouldn’t hurt to have some thing conservative.

30 years left for me. Opted out.

Did the math, and MBCBP did not win out under any circumstance for me. I kept it simple. My whole life I've parked extra savings in something like VTSAX (Vanguard total market Index), which averages around 10% since inception. That means that your money doubles every 8 years. I don't care if a little more % from ALPA dues came out of it, or it was subject to a higher initial tax bracket. In the end, that pile of cash is still going to be worth several multiples of what my MBCBP fund would end up at.

The MBCBP was forced to use a very conservative investment fund to meet the requirement that your returns will never go below 0, lest the company get put on the hook to reimburse you. If the market gets so bad that long term gains go below zero, then we have bigger problems to worry about than our spillover cash (likely we won't have jobs at all). So that extra conservative security strategy is a complete non-feature to me.

Also, in the grand scheme of things, a stock market index fund is still relatively safe and returns have never in history remained negative for more than 7 ish years. In the rare event that happens, again, we have much bigger issues to worry about. That being said, if you go beyond mutual funds and start getting into real estate investments like I've dabbled in, change that 10% avg return to 20-30% cash-on-cash average return. MBCBP gets left even more in the dust, even after considering taxes and dues. So there is no possible "re-adjusting" my accounts to balance the overly safe MBCBP, my 10% mutual funds were already my minimum baseline for safety.

Mutual funds are already "set-it and forget-it". You can set up automatic monthly contributions, or make single deposits every few months with your extra cash. Log in to Vanguard, type a number, click submit. Takes under 5 min.

In 30 years of compounding interest:
At 5%.... $200k grows to $864,388
At 10%.. $200k grows to $3,489,880

I'm happy with the latter any day...but that's just me


The *only* hesitation I had is that, if at a future date they eventually make the MBCBP much more lucrative (correct me if I'm wrong, they can tweak it in the future), I'm possibly left being stuck out of it. But in that case I'd hope they re-open it, or have yearly enrollment like United(?)

United won’t have a yearly enrollment. Why??? Because it’s the IRS the one that set the rules. We are supposed to have enrollment every contract cycle.

That’s why I opted out, Alpa should’ve just say “that’s not what we agreed upon, the MCBP doesn’t go”.

Also, I don’t trust when someone makes a decision over my money and Alpa change the fund in a month. It was black rock and now is another one.

20 left. In

I was a tweener where I could theoretical beat it, but I also know me and excess is likely to be a new dirtbike for me or my neice.

I've been a fire and forget investor in a lifecycle fund closest my retirement year (2044, in 2045 fund)

I may move my 401k allocation to a LC 2050 or 55 fund to get a slightly more agreesive 401k to balance the conservative mbcbp

9 years left, I'm in by conscious decision.

I figure worst case scenario, I can do in-service distributions and put it where I want starting in 4 years.

Don't think there's a chance I'll be retiring from this career in 39 years from now. Out. I'd give it about 10-15, max 20 years before AI/automation completely takes over cockpits and pilots are obsolete. Gotta get (and enjoy) while the getting's good!

27 to go. Staying in. I can do ALOT in my 401K, my own IRA, and wife’s IRA via the back door. Some may have other thoughts that will be said at FL350. Guess what, same look.

Less than five years left. So worst case I can withdraw once a year and reallocate. That said a guy on one of the Facebook forums put it best…”I have great intentions on how to invest my excess cash but it never happens once it hits my checkbook.” The forced savings will do me well.

Nah, Boeing and Airbus can't even come up with two pilot clean sheet narrow body designs without major delays and some serious crashes. Tesla and Google have pretty much all but admitted that full self driving cars aren't even going to happen. What makes you think they're gonna be able to tackle automated airliners?

23 to go. In.
Made more sense to me. I’m also a more hands off type on my investments.