Hacker News Reader

Comment by jimt1234 | Hacker News Reader

A friend of mine "retired" from the military at 38. She joined right out of high school. The Navy put her through med school, then she served as a ship doctor for over 10 years, traveling to dozens of countries. She "retired" with a military pension and an MD, having never spent a penny on med school. She works basically part-time now at a local healthcare provider. Did that come across as jealous? Well, I am. We all told her she was stupid to join the military, and now we're all still paying off student debt, and she's livin' her best life. :(

View on HN

If it makes you feel better it sounds like your friend got the golden path; VERY few people hit the milestones and get accepted into the programs that allow that career path. STA-21 and/or the Public Health College were in that path if she got retirement credit for going to school and there are very few spots in those programs.

Lol, you mean for men it's hard to get in. A woman or minority can just walk right in.

I know the feeling. But that doesn't mean that you were wrong, or that your advice was bad. It's safe to recommend your friends not to play the loterie if the goal is to derive predictable revenue. It doesn't mean that everyone lose at the game.

Your friend and people drawing conclusion from her anecdote will end up with beliefs typical of the Gettier problem.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gettier_problem

Correct me if I'm wrong in my understanding on vocations, but didn't it also require quite a bit of luck that she got to take on this vocation in the Navy?

If you are a decently talented software engineer and you can't match or exceed a non-specialist MD in earning power then you are doing something wrong. Especially in the current market.

Sure, but you can NOT retire with a real pension at 38!

Maybe not a pension, but you could retire at 38 with millions of dollars invested and earning a passive income.

the NPV of a Commander in the Navy is 1.3M dollars at 38...no risk

Excellent comment. I’m now 70 and well-to-do. But I was a fool to go into private enterprise with all its interpersonal dishonesty. Government jobs at the national labs had superior NPV’s— the pensions are absurdly expensive taxes on struggling workers when carried out to the 85-year typical lifespans of workers. There were layoffs, true. But I understand the psychology and passivity of persons who managed to get themselves laid off.

Apart from the inconsequential risk of death or disability of course.

You also have that risk as a civilian. In some places in the US quite more so than on a warship...

You also have the choice to take action to avoid risk. That choice is not available in the military. You're trading a lot of freedom over those 20 years. (Did I mention how expensive getting divorced is?)

you guys are kind of using NPV ambiguously. You mean that when you retire at 38, the NPV of your retirement plan at that point (for when you are 39, 40, ... etc.) is $1.3M, and if you haven't retired yet then it's really a FV? what discount rate are you using?

or did you mean the NPV when joining at age 18 is... see what I mean?

> no risk

Reply on news.ycombinator.com