What are your five year goals? What are you doing to get there? Are there any military programs out there you're taking advantage of?

2024-08-27T15:39:51-04:00

This is a pretty open ended question meant to help members out who may be in the same boat. Education goals, financial goals, family goals, etc.

Response by COL Randall C. made Aug 27 at 2024 4:53 PM

2024-08-27T16:53:57-04:00

As a "retiree retiree" (as opposed to a military retiree currently in my next career), my financial five-year goal has shifted more towards "estate planning" than it has been on "estate building".

Much of my day is now focused on enjoying life and giving back in the form of coaching/mentoring to service members/veterans and various volunteer work.

Whenever I have any sort of question regarding entitlements or benefits, I find myself visiting the Soldier For Life and Military OneSource webpages* as my first stops and usually I can find 95% of my answers between those two sources.
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* Soldier For Life - https://soldierforlife.army.mil/
* Military OneSource - https://www.militaryonesource.mil/

US Army Soldier For Life

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Response by SGM Mikel Dawson made Aug 27 at 2024 11:19 PM

2024-08-27T23:19:48-04:00

When I joined the Army, I only had two goals - 1. Stay in long enough to get a retirement - did 22yrs, 4m, 18d. Goal Achieved. 2. Get the highest rank I could - Done: I retired E9. Everything else in my career was focused to achieve these two goals.

Response by A1C Medrick "Rick" DeVaney made Aug 29 at 2024 3:25 AM

2024-08-29T03:25:48-04:00

EASIEST QUESTION EVER ~~ My 5 Year Goal Is To Try Living Long Enough To See If My 5 Year Goal Should Have Been Long Enough To Being A 5 Year Goal. ~ That's My Goal.
~~
Okay ~ BUT, The Reality Of My 4 Year Enlistment Is My Discovery Of The Unlimited Sheer Volume Of FREE Educational Programs Which We Available To Us Through The United States Armed Forces Institute.aka USAFI. ~ As I Had To Lie My A-Butt Off To Be Allowed To Enlist. At That Time A 10th Grade Education Was The Minimal Amount Required To Enlist And I Only Had 8 Of Them. As A Result, I Grabbed Onto Every Business Program I Could Lay My Hands On And Complete Within That 4 Year Enlistment; Sometimes 2 Or 3 At A Time, Depending Upon The Subjects Complexities,And I Completing My Final Program, Just 2 Months Before Being Issued My DD-214, And Returning Stateside From Osan AFB, South Korea. (See Bio)...Results Are Pretty Cool. May The Gods Bless The USAF For Preventing Me From Becoming An " "Unemployable Idiot" ~ They Had Already Reached Their Legal Limit ~ The Others Were "Throw-Backs""

Response by Maj Kim Patterson made Sep 7 at 2024 3:24 PM

2024-09-07T15:24:28-04:00

I don’t have 5 year goals. I’m on the take it a day at a time plan. 5 years ago they said hospice. Yesterday was a particularly bad day and I could easily have been gone because of physical health issues. I have acquiesced and accepted some help through the VA home health program. I have one eye open today and am quietly resting in bed with supervision

Response by SFC Dr. Jesus Garcia-Arce, Psy.D made Sep 7 at 2024 4:17 PM

2024-09-07T16:17:07-04:00

When I joined in tha Army 1972 I only had two goal, stay as long I could to get retirement (did 27 years and get the highest I could with my Chemical MOS, I retired E-7 SFC, continue my studies to get a Psy.D and help my community to get better life.