The day you enlist is the day you should start planning for retirement

A military career is like no other. Yet it has something in common with all careers. You can’t start too soon on retirement planning. Here with some tips is someone who has personal experience in this. Retired Navy captain now president of the Navy Mutual Aid Association, Brian Luther joins the Federal Drive with Tom Temin.

Interview transcript:

Tom Temin And last time we spoke about wealth accumulation over the course of a career. But that’s only one part of career planning in terms of eventual retirement. Correct?

Brian Luther Correct. There are many aspects to the poultry retirement. And I believe the first thing, it starts with a plan to understand where the journey is going to take you in your post-retirement life.

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Tom Temin And that depends on where you start out? Because nowadays, people going into the military as enlistees very often have some kind of a specialized occupation they want to sign up for, as opposed to the old days where everybody was in cavalry.

Brian Luther Right. To your point, the military today is so specialized it gives multiple career options. And even when you come in the military, if you find that your passion is elsewhere, you can change what we call rates in the Navy. And through your whole Navy career, you are creating a professional portfolio. And then at some point you retire or leave the service. And that professional expertise can translate into a post military career. And that’s what the individual should be planning for that transition to their next career.

Tom Temin Right. Because at most you’ve got, well, typically 20 years in before you retire. Unless you get to higher rank, and then it could be 35 years. Even that leaves someone with plenty of time left.

Brian Luther It does. If you figure that most people are coming in as high school or college graduates, 18 to 21. After 20 years, you’re a 40 year old ready to start your second career, which would allow you to have a full 20, 30 year career before you’re eligible for retirement social security. So the military allows you to have two full careers in your lifetime.

Tom Temin Right. And if you say, I’ll just pick an area that the military is trying to recruit for cybersecurity, and you decide you want to do cybersecurity. Suppose somewhere along the line, a few years in, you decide you want to change specialties, maybe something in the mechanical engineering area. How flexible can military life be such that you can say to someone, I really want to move to the mechanical engineering area. Is that doable?

Brian Luther To your to your point, maybe. It sounded really good when you started, but it’s not where your passion is, so you lose a little bit of the time that you invested in that career because as you get promoted in, there is foundational learning for that rate. So you’ll basically start over a little bit. But that’s no different than reinventing yourself in a career outside of the military. So there will be some core capabilities that remain the same, but there will be some that are unique to your new career field that you’ll have to start. It’ll put you a little bit behind, but you can easily catch up.

Tom Temin Well, it puts you behind in like specific rank that you’re at. You don’t go down a rank, but you maybe just get, I don’t know, how does that work?

Brian Luther There’s certifications or required trainings that you need to do, and you may not be eligible for the next rank until you complete them. So if you and I came in at the same time, and you were progressing in mechanical engineering, I started in cyber and then came over, I’m at least that class work behind you as it goes. But at certain points they expect you to spend a fixed amount of time in a pay grade to get your experience to season you, and you can catch up inside of that seasoning time and then be eligible and then get promoted at that point.

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Tom Temin Got it. We’re speaking with Brian Luther, president and CEO of the Navy Mutual Aid Association, and retired Navy admiral. And suppose you’re ten years in, how late into, say, a 20 year tenure can you keep switching? Or when that point you have to commit to maximize your time in.

Brian Luther Right. So in the military, there are certain gates where you have to be a certain rank in order to have longevity beyond that. So you would have to examine, for an enlisted, you have to be what we call a pay grade an E6. To get to 20, you have to be an E6, and that gets you to retirement. If you leapfrog across too many rates in change and you’re incapable of achieving that rate, you won’t be able to get to 20 years. So at some point you have to say, I’m going to commit just to get to the 20 years so I can get the retirement benefits associated with the 20 year service.

Tom Temin  Got it. And let’s say you somehow navigated yourself to that E6 and it is 20 years, what’s the selling proposition? Is it your specific skills or the military environment that you’ve been through? What is it that appeals to employers at that point?

Brian Luther Well, a couple things. If you’ve made it through 20 years in the military, you’ve demonstrated a work ethic, a type of ownership of an area that you go to. You’ve also got 20 years experience, typically for people they stay inside their field. So if you’re a 20 year, 15 year mechanical engineer, you’ve got that experience. And so now you’re not trying for an entry level position. You’re going through with a specific skill set. And the military has unique operating environments that generate skills that aren’t easily replicated in the civilian world. And so those people can say, I’m looking for somebody that can handle this unique capability that normally isn’t found in the corporate environment.

Tom Temin And what about the supervisory aspect of it? Because my understanding is as you progress in the military, you have supervisory responsibility for increasing numbers of people. When you leave, you might be, say, just to continue with the idea of mechanical engineer, you might be an engineer somewhere that really wants your skills, but you are in a specific task group and there’s only four other people, as opposed to the 200 you had before.

Brian Luther Absolutely. Teamwork and leadership are core competencies of service in the military. And as you say, the more senior you get, the more leadership responsibilities you have. I liken it a little phrase I had is when you start out, I did it. And then as you get more senior, you get a team. And we did it. And then when you become a leader of leaders, it’s they did it. And so as you progress through that career, you have your individual competency, your team competency and a leader of teams competency. And again, and employers looking for that skill set in various job opportunities.

Tom Temin  And we started out this discussion ostensibly on the idea of retirement planning. And so how does that all add up multiple careers. How do you think about retirement? And when do you start thinking about it outside of the financial area? What are some signs?

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Brian Luther So often when you start the military, you’re by yourself, like when you’re working on that individual. Typically at some point you get married. And so the family will put some demand. Sometimes your family, your parents, your brothers, your sisters, it may be time to leave the military because you have a family concern. It may be time to make, instead of your career the priority, your family, the priority. I’ve seen opportunities where in the military you’ve gotten very, very good at what you’re doing, and then the civilian world values you, and then you want to pursue that passion. And I’ve seen people serve 20 years in the military and then go get their PhD and then start teaching. So at some point you say the Navy. And for me, the Navy was part of my life, but it was never meant to be in my entire life. And then you go off and find a new adventure.

Tom Temin Sure. And what about especially if you are beyond the E6 level, say, at the level that you were at, which is general officer and you’ve been in that type of rank for a long time, say, to the 30, 35 year type of deployment in the military. How do you think about what the next thing should be such that it, I don’t know how to put this, but that it dignifies what it is you had done before you left the military.

Brian Luther There are some people that, to your point, would use you for your Rolodex. And then all they’re trying to do is position you to open doors for them, and which can be uncomfortable for you and your friends whose doors you’re knocking down. Conversely, some companies, they just want a potted plant in the corner that they can say, here’s my general officer. And then they don’t give you true authority to accomplish anything. And then there are companies that say, like we discuss, I’m looking for leadership, I’m looking for team building, I’m looking for a sense of ownership and accomplishment. And so that’s part of the journey. If you’re looking for an easy job, maybe you go to be a potted plant. If you don’t mind leaning on your friends, maybe you go there. For myself, I wanted to continue to serve the military, the service member, because I liked the concept of service, and I liked the people I served with the Navy. And so I went to Navy Mutual as a nonprofit. But again, it’s a journey, and people need to make their own choices. But the world is vast and there’s many choices to be made.

Tom Temin Yeah, and that idea of the Rolodex, the other problem with that is that the Rolodex is highly perishable, especially if you knew people in the military, nobody stays anywhere that long in a given job.

Brian Luther Yes, I agree, it’s a time critical and you have to get in before your Rolodex ages out. That’s an excellent point.

Tom Temin  Anything else that you would have in retirement? Guess maybe the better word is long term career planning for people just starting out in the military. I guess your first day of enlistment is probably when you should start thinking about it.

Brian Luther It’s always good to have a plan, but I do think that the government, the people of America have really taken care of the military. And one challenge, I think that military members are getting ready for retirement would be to truly take some time and understand the benefits that are associated with your service. The VA has good benefits, there’s veterans services organizations out there that can help you. There’s educational benefits. If you never investigate those, you’re giving away gratitude. People have, they want to say thank you for your service. And so you really need to invest the time and research to find out what you’re eligible for and what you should use, and then understand the Bureaucracy. I used to say the Navy floats on paper. So when you do want to get these benefits, understand that there’s an application process and processing time, and which is typically is months. And so if it’s months to get something, you should plan and time accordingly.

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