I use to ask military service members exiting the U.S. Army, What are you planning to do? Where do you want to be in 3 to 5 years?
Have you asked yourself that question?
I work at a university that has a military & veterans resource center and I ask the student veterans the same question and most of the time I get a long pause, "Finish my degree" I ask "Then what?" and the response is "Get a job".
How can we get folks exiting the military to come up with a better plan?
I hear, "Well we have TAP" and I ask them have you been through it? Plus when do you get to attend, right at the end when you are walking out the door, not enough time to effectively plan a course of action.
I was a U.S. Army Career Counselor and interviewed everyone exiting the Army. I would ask those questions and 90% of the time I got the "Deer in the headlight look" or "Do something".
Looking back, What was your plan of action exiting the military? Were you financially ready? Were you mentally ready?
Transition
Planning
I did a spreadsheet on my after military life expenses.
You can calculate your retirement http://militarypay.defense.gov/retirement/calc/index.html
Some things you would need to assume on your spreadsheet if you don't know is water bill, electricity, groceries, and so on. I did this to see what I really needed to live and then I made other additions to raise my standard of living. Bottom-line, I knew without a job and just my retirement where I stood, I would be okay.
You can personalize the inputs to reflect your expectations about your
retirement and economic conditions.
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