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- Jan 10, 2013
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OK I know what some of you are thinking. Dr. DLoNB, why in the world would you willingly stay in the military after being handed the golden key to your HPSP active duty chastity belt? The allure of cheap health insurance, being able to transfer my GI bill, and salving my HPSP time towards a retirement pension is enticing me. From what I can tell, it's just a weekend per month and maybe 2 weeks a year of active duty time. The retirement pay is not insignificant and could be a huge part of my retirement allowing me to scale back on work even earlier for some kind of coastFIRE plan. Seems like a pretty good deal even before we consider any kind of pay involved. At the same time, this is also how I felt about HPSP as a premed and we all know how that story goes, which is why I'm so cautious about this.
I did 4 years HPSP, 4 years active duty residency, and am currently in my payback period. My current plan was just to separate at 4 years and go full-time civilian and live my rich life, leaving behind my nontransferable GI bill and HPSP time. However, I talked to someone who said they were separating this year and going reserves, and I learned about some of the advantages of going reserves. I'm not looking to get deployed (main reason I will separate when eligible is to get rid of the threat of deployment/PCS). Here are my questions:
Thanks for coming to my TED talk, I appreciate any advice/wisdom you folks have.
I did 4 years HPSP, 4 years active duty residency, and am currently in my payback period. My current plan was just to separate at 4 years and go full-time civilian and live my rich life, leaving behind my nontransferable GI bill and HPSP time. However, I talked to someone who said they were separating this year and going reserves, and I learned about some of the advantages of going reserves. I'm not looking to get deployed (main reason I will separate when eligible is to get rid of the threat of deployment/PCS). Here are my questions:
- Does anyone have any advice on how to make this decision?
- Has anyone done this who can share their experience? Is it truly as good as it sounds, as in for the minimal amount of work of 1 weekend a month, 2 weeks a year, we get all the above benefits?
- If you're deployed as a reservist, how does the pay structure work?
Thanks for coming to my TED talk, I appreciate any advice/wisdom you folks have.