There's A Problem With The Proposed Changes To The Military's New Retirement Plan

I have to disagree with the basic premise. The military has seldom had difficulty attracting young people, and when it does, a bonus system has worked well. The idea that an 18 year old signs up to prepare for retirement is just not true for the vast majority. One doesn't start thinking about retirement (really) until you are 30 or even older. The trick is how do we retain the right mid-career Soldiers, and I don't think the new retirement system furthers those ends and indeed works against them.

The New retirement system acts like a typical retirement plan; you get what you put in. It makes those coming in more responsible for their actions during their service.

It was a mistake to mess with it so everyone got a trophy. I understand full well that it takes a LOT of commitment to make it to 20 and to go past it, but if your plan is to get in, get a skill or college money, and roll out, nothing wrong with that, but why should you get anything more than that and your ETS award? And with them moving it to five years in before you can really do anything with them matching your investment, it doesn't sound so good anymore at least to me. Unless enlistment contracts have changed, going to a five year minimum eliminates quite a few combat arms jobs, and quite a few combat support and service support MOS. So now it really gets crazy with the Pentagon holding the carrot over your head and you hoping to reup and then do a couple MORE years to see them match you. The 20 year deal was solid. It was damn near a lock if you refrained from stepping on your crank too hard. You could even plan using that money. Unless the Soldier is investment savvy and really knows how to budget and properly plan ahead, this is not a good thing. To add insult to injury, I'm sure each post will have an investment adviser. Great idea except would the investing you do at Ft. Polk be the same investing you do at Ft. Irwin? Would it take into account market fluctuating? And who's going to monitor these Soldiers to ensure that they're making the right investments? 1SG? Would he be qualified to do that? How do you counsel someone on investing? What if they don't do enough; want to take out of it to buy that C7 Zo6 at a 50% APR? Too many loopholes with more risk than reward. As much as I wish I was in, seeing the headache this will become almost makes me feel good I'm out. If there are any financial guru's on here who could make this seem like less of a disaster to me, please give me a block of instruction seriously.